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COBIR1GHT DEPOSIT. 



THE BIRTH 

OF 

DEMOCRACY 



BY 

C. H. McINTIRE 



cr ~^SfO"S2 r " 



CHICAGO 
I. M. SIMONS 
MCMXVIII 




.A 2 * 



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Copyrighted 191! 

by 

I. M. SIMONS 



DEC 31 1918 



©CI.A51U338 



PREFACE 

ALTHOUGH man has always rejected that which 
would benefit him most, and has ever taken 
sides with his worst enemies, it is evident that he is 
rapidly becoming conscious that the dawn of a new 
era is upon the horizon, and, even though it will ne- 
cessitate an acknowledgment of self-error, which 
has always been so painful to him, I believe he has 
seen enough slavery, poverty, persecution, and war, 
to give ear to rational discussion upon their basic 
and underlying causes, to the extent that he may 
even abandon the tradition of leaving important is- 
sues to posterity, in bringing about their dissolution ; 
therefore, I have tried to drive home, in a simple way, 
the truth to the public mind, and lay bare the obsta- 
cles and instruments that have shackled the human 
brain and thus impeded social progress throughout 
all the ages of the world. Then, I have pointed out 
very plainly, the social, political, and economic 
changes that inevitably will, and which necessarily 
must take place before Democracy can possibly be 
established. 

As a vehicle to convey the reader through the vari- 
ous social and organic phases of the evolution of the 
race I have employed the moving pictures, without 
which, a volume many times this size would have 
been required, and through which I have been able 
to avoid most of the tiresome pedagogy and statistics 
heretofore believed necessary in rendering the fun- 
damental principles of these truths intelligible to the 
student of Science, and made them understandable 
to the layman. 

Chicago, July 1, 1918. THE AUTHOR. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 



A heavy shower had driven us from the field 
about four o'clock, and just as I had turned from 
hanging up a bridle and was unbuckling a hame- 
string, who should slip into the stall and slap me on 
the shoulder but Uncle Howard Judy, an old 
friend of the family who had come down from the 
Old Soldiers' Home to visit with us for a week. 
Glad to see him? Yes, indeed! Many, many times 
have both Father and Mother expressed their wish 
that we were able to have him make his home with 
us. He is so pleasant and patient at all times, 
finding laughs where others find only sorrows and 
tears, and an interesting experience to relate of 
cunning necessitated during his various explora- 
tions. His presence always makes life a pleasure 
for all; even the dog and cats seem to recognize 
the gentleness of his disposition and are to be seen 

(5) 



6 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

much of the while at his feet, inviting the soothing 
strokes of his wrinkled hand. 

He was left an orphan at seven, when his parents 
were killed by a train at an unguarded crossing, 
and was taken by an old maid aunt who, fearing he 
would acquire evil habits if permitted to associate 
with other boys, did not send him to school, but 
taught him to read and write as best she could and 
a little about addition. When at the age of fifteen 
his aunt died, leaving him alone in the world, un- 
educated, and a target for sport-making of other 
boys — a typical greenhorn. His only chance was 
the army, where he was received as drummer-boy. 
Here his good breeding (as we farmers call it) 
gained for him many friends, who not only provided 
him with books to read but taught him science and 
arithmetic; and after leaving the army at the close 
of the war, he became an extensive traveler and 
searcher for truth. Having a faculty for seeing 
everything he looked at, and for being able to do 
most anything that any other man could do, he 
sought livelihood in many vocations, which gave 
him an excellent opportunity to study human nature 
as well as political economy. Unlike the average 
young man of today who spends much of his time 
in saloons and pool rooms, most of his leisure hours 
were spent in libraries. He can do anything, it 
seems, but accumulate wealth, which is probably 
due to his stupid honesty. Several clever inventions 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 7 

he has allowed others to steal by betraying his con- 
fidence. Doubtless, coming generations will shout 
praises for him, according to the laws of tradition, 
which holds that all heroes and geniuses are dead. 

Father, being at the other end of the field when 
the rain came up, was several minutes behind me, 
thus by the time he arrived we had calmed down 
from our little fit of gratitude, and Uncle Howard 
had concealed himself beside one of my mules to 
surprise him as he had me. However, he did not 
wait until Father had gotten into the stall, but 
jumped upon him before he was hardly inside the 
door. 

By and by we got the mules all unharnessed and 
turned out into the orchard for the night and pro- 
ceeded to the house for a good old-time chat, and 
while we were getting into some dry clothes, 
Mother and Sister Alice entertained Uncle Howard 
in the kitchen as they were preparing supper. 

Alice had been home but a week after spending 
three years in the hospital, where she had graduated 
as a trained nurse, and was relating many of her 
experiences, which were very interesting to him. 
He was always strongly in favor of merit rule and 
government ownership of hospitals, as well as all 
other public utilities, and thus he easily called her 
attention to many points where she had been ex- 
ploited for personal profit, while being flatteringly 
praised and complimented for the good judgment 



8 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

she had exercised "doing her duty". Especially was 
he interested when she told him of the graduating 
exercises her class had been looking forward to — 
musical selections by the most prominent women in 
town, beautiful addresses by the preacher and doc- 
tors, to be followed by a fine supper, all of which had 
fallen through at the last moment with practically 
no excuses, and all she received was a fine, large di- 
ploma with a wonderful recommendation written in 
a beautiful hand, and signed by the superintendent 
and all the doctors in town. Also they presented her 
with a class pin (upon which was carved a beautiful 
and inspiring motto) , with an explanation from the 
superintendent that the hospital was very short on 
funds, and inasmuch as she would soon be earning 
good wages they felt it was no more than right that 
she pay for her own pin. So she handed her eleven 
dollars and wore the pin home, but from the teasings 
she has received about it since I don't think she will 
ever put it on again. "A walking advertisement — 
a bill-board for the hospital to catch more dupes to 
work for them for nothing", said Uncle Howard as 
Alice explained that they had taught her that a good 
nurse always holds up for the doctors and the hos- 
pital, regardless of what happens. Then to cap the 
climax, when she wrote to the State Superintendent 
of Registered Nurses to find where and when she 
might take the examination and become an "R. N." 
(get a chance to buy some more jewelry, Father 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 9 

suggested), she was informed that as she had not 
graduated from an "accredited school" she would 
not be eligible to registration, according to a State 
Law, until she had spent three years training in such 
an institution. Fearing she had misinterpreted the 
first letter, she made further inquiry, which was 
answered with emphasis, that regardless of profi- 
ciency and merit, even were she able to pass their 
examinations with a credit of 100 per cent, this 
rule and law must be followed; and by the time 
supper was ready Uncle Howard was rolling out 
words faster than a champion auctioneer, stating 
his regrets that he hadn't the power to place every 
grafter on the continent in the front line trenches. 

We had hardly seated ourselves at the table when 
the telephone rang, which Alice answered. Another 
surprise for us : it was Cousin Ethel from Chicago, 
waiting at the station for us to come after her. 
Why we were so surprised was that the last time 
she was down she became offended at Father for 
saying that he thought about as much of the girl 
who attends public dances as he did of the one who 
sleeps with a silk poodle in her arms, and that 
neither could be intelligent. 

EthePs father is a grain broker and they live on 
Lake Shore Drive. (Uncle Howard says that all the 
people in Chicago who have to work for a living 
call it "Gold Coast", because no one is allowed to 
live there but millionaires.) So she is a leader in 



10 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

society and gets her name and picture in the news- 
papers quite often. However, she enjoys a trip to 
the country occasionally, even if she does have to 
stoop so low as to associate with her poor relatives. 

How were we going after her? The mules 
were all out and nothing could persuade them into 
the barn before morning. Alice was trying to fig- 
ure out, talking first to Ethel and then to us, when 
suddenly Owen Baker, a young man living on the 
adjoining farm (who "pikes" every time - the 
phone rings), "butted in", suggesting to Alice that 
he drive past in his big car, as it had not rained 
enough to make the roads muddy, and we would all 
go to the station to get Ethel, then on to town 
(which is eight miles farther) and take in a movie, 
which, of course, was agreeable to all, and Alice told 
him to be along in about half an hour. 

Owen is the information bureau of the commu- 
nity — he knows all about everything and every- 
body. He has appointed himself to investigate the 
character of every girl that comes within fifteen 
miles, and then to tell the boys about them, but be- 
cause he is young and from one of the wealthiest and 
"most respected" families nothing is said about it. 
He has two elegant cars and lots of good clothes, a 
two-carat diamond stud, and a gold-headed cane, 
has his nails manicured twice a week and always 
wears a silk shirt, while his socks, tie and top 
pocket handkerchief always match. All of which, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 11 

needless to say, make a hit with most girls. 

Father and mother said they were very tired and 
preferred staying at home, but insisted that Uncle 
Howard go with us, for they know he always has a 
store of information up his sleeve that Alice and I 
need more than they do. 

At exactly seven o'clock came the honk ! honk ! 
from Owen's car, and I will never forget the curl 
on Uncle Howard's lip as he shook hands with the 
popular young gentleman, who was sitting up be- 
hind a gold-tipped cigarette as important as any 
millionaire in the world, then climbed into the rear 
seat with Alice, while I sat with Owen in front. 

It was but a few minutes until we arrived at the 
station; it seemed to me that I had hardly gotten 
straight in my seat, for it was the first time I was 
ever in an auto. Alice had had several rides when 
the doctors took her to the country on cases. Owen 
and I made a few remarks about the weather while 
he kept one ear toward the rear, trying to catch a 
few words from the chatter that was going on back 
there. Alice was telling Uncle Howard about 
Ethel's knitting — about her first pair of socks, which 
were sent to a soldier at Camp Grant, who wrote 
her a little verse about them that vexed her very 
much, causing her to declare that she would not 
knit another stitch, but when the ladies of the Club 
explained to her that this would never do, she re- 
sumed the work. The verse was : 



12 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

The socks you sent me are a perfect fit, 
I use one for a hammock and one for a mit, 
I hope I see you when I've done my bit, 
But where in the did you learn to knit? 

Ethel was walking restlessly about the platform 
with her knitting bag (made of red satin, about 
four shades brighter than Owen's tie, and in the 
shape of a red cross) swinging on her arm. As we 
stopped, Owen adjusted his handkerchief to exactly 
one and five-eighths inches above the edge of his 
pocket, while his eyes rested upon Ethel as she 
tripped carefully toward the car, fearing her ankle 
might turn should her three-inch heel slip off a cin- 
der or corn cob, many of which were scattered about 
on the ground. I hardly know which caught his eye 
first: the letters "C. R." which were beautifully 
embroidered in red and blue, over her instep and 
on her flesh-colored stockings (which she later ex- 
plained to us were the initials of her sweetheart 
who had gone to war, and was the latest way "all 
the girls' ' had for showing their loyalty and patri- 
otism), or the flag she had pasted over the lower 
end of her breast bone, which was in plain view. 
However, he assured her that it afforded him a great 
pleasure to meet her, while I was arranging her 
grip behind my feet. Then while she and Alice 
were saying the usual woman's how-de-do, Owen 
lit another gold-tip and soon we were on our way 
to the movie. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 13 

After Alice had asked about Uncle John and 
Aunt Lydia and was told that they were well, she 
inquired about the dog, to which Ethel answered: 
"Oh my, it is certainly a sin and a shame the way 
the poor little darling has been neglected. I bought 
him a Liberty Bond some time ago, but I haven't 
had the time to notice whether the maid has polished 
his nails or even given him a bath for two weeks. 
Since I've been doing patriotic work and trying to 
keep up with my club work too, I have grown to 
be almost a nervous wreck; and then with this 
dreadfully hot weather (as she pushed her large 
fur back on her shoulders) on top of that, the doc- 
tor said that I just must stop and go to the counry 
for a few weeks." 

Ethel is a very accomplished girl — she is a Uni- 
versity graduate, and knows all about fine arts — 
music and rhetoric ; knows all the latest dance steps 
and how to play bridge, and she has read all the 
books on ethics. Some of the most interesting things 
she has told us about ethics are: "When a lady is 
walking with a gentleman he should walk on the 
side next to the street; any married lady or one 
who is engaged to be married should wear a ring 
on the third finger of the left hand to prevent other 
gentlemen from proposing to her; every gentleman 
should remove his hat when riding in elevators with 
ladies, while he is no longer required to offer a lady 
his seat on a street car, even if she has a baby in 



14 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

her arms; refined people use their knives very lit- 
tle, if at all, while eating; distinguished ladies 
should never wear the same dress to more than one 
party; polished ladies are careful to have exactly 
twenty-seven hairs in each eyebrow ; women of good 
tastes always wear silk pomps with evening dress 
regardless of weather conditions" ; and "no cultured 
lady, while walking on the street, will take a step 
of more than sixteen inches. The most humiliating 
breech of etiquette/' she explained, "is the improper 
acknowledgment of an introduction. When a lady 
is introduced to another lady, they should shake 
hands while wrists are on a level with chin and with 
fingers pointing downward at an angle of forty-five 
degrees. If they are not of same height, then the 
height of the wrist shall be divided to the distance 
of half way between the chins of each." 

They do not shake hands as we farmers do, but 
simply take hold of each other's fingers, step back 
four inches with the left foot, then bow the head 
slightly as they release hands, while if it be a man 
who is introduced to a lady, she slightly nods while 
he places his hand on left side and bows low. 

Owen and I talked very little, as he was too 
much interested in what Ethel was saying. He 
usually spends several weeks in Chicago each sum- 
mer and I suppose her conversation made him a 
little homesick for the gay life he has told me some- 
thing of enjoying there. Especially was he inter- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 15 

ested when she showed us a photograph of her dog, 
explaining that it was valued at five thousand dol- 
lars and had a platinum collar and chain that cost 
one thousand ; also that he had won prizes at many 
shows and was of the purest blood. Owen is quite a 
dog fancier also, he assured her, adding that it is 
ridiculous and should be against the law for any one 
to keep other than pure bred dogs; at which Uncle 
Howard wrinkled his face with a sarcastic grin. 
He sat back quietly, taking it all in, speaking but 
once during the journey; then, in answer to Ethel's 
inquiry, asking if he wasn't afraid of the night air. 

"I have been breathing it every night for sixty- 
eight years, and it hasn't hurt me yet that I know 
of; in fact, there isn't any other air to breathe at 
night," he chuckled back, she enjoying his humor 
as much as the rest of us. 

As we neared town, Ethel asked Owen if he would 
be kind enough to drive past the hotel, so she might 
clean up a little before going to the show. One of 
the first things I had noticed as she was getting 
into the car was that the perspiration, along with 
the train dirt, had played havoc wih her ruby lips 
and cherry cheeks, as well as with her snappy eye- 
brows and lashes, and had been wondering how she 
was going to adjust them before appearing in a pub- 
lic place. 

As we drove past the theatre I suggested that I 
get out and get our tickets and wait on the outside 



16 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

for them, for the crowd was fairly flocking in, and 
I feared we would not be able to get seats, but Owen 
said he had reserved them over the phone. 

Finally the girls emerged from the wash room, 
Ethel looking quite refreshed after the application 
of soap and water, and a fresh supply of com- 
plexion, as well as having enjoyed her usual cigar- 
ette (Owen whispering to me, as they neared the 
car, that she had a beautiful form and a pretty leg — 
her dress extending but a few inches below her 
knees), and we hurried back to the theatre, which 
was packed to the doors, and were slowly ushered 
to our seats in the center aisle, about twenty seats 
back, I believe. Owen entered first, followed by 
Ethel, and then Alice, allowing Uncle Howard to 
sit between Alice and me. 

The show had started and we did not get to see 
the name of the production nor the introduction of 
all the principal characters. The first thing we saw 
was a pair of heavy curtains — portieres, I believe 
they call them, in front of which seemed to be hang- 
ing in large letters : 

THE DESPOT (SYMBOLIZING AUTOC- 
RACY)— HENRY BLAKE 

Suddenly this disappeared and the curtains 
opened slowly. A very large and hateful looking 
man, with a bull-dog jaw and practically no fore- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 17 

head (his head seemed to slope backwards from his 
eyebrows, and he looked as if he had never known 
how to smile) stepped out and looked angrily about 
for a few seconds, then stepped back and closed the 
curtains. 

Then another name appeared over them : 

GEORGE CARSON (SYMBOLIZING GEN- 
IUS)— HAROLD WALKER 

After a few seconds this disappeared and the cur- 
tains again parted and one of the most intelligent 
looking gentlemen I ever gazed upon stepped for- 
ward. He had a broad and high forehead and his 
eyes displayed a kind and forgiving disposition — 
admiration for all that is pure and sweet and 
wholesome, and a curl on his lip which indicated 
tact and humor. He was just a sort of fellow who 
will talk to a man whether in rags or in broad- 
cloth, and one whom both enjoy conversing with. 
He looked casually about, slightly smiling, for a 
moment, then making a slight bow, stepped back 
through the curtains and closed them. Then the 
following appeared over the curtains: 

NELLIE MARTIN (SYMBOLIZING DEMOC- 
RACY)— EDITH CONWAY 

Again the curtains parted, and a most brilliant 



18 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

looking girl emerged. 

"Well", said Ethel, "this certainly can't be much 
of a picture, for neither of these people are known, 
and it's a certainty that no picture can be a success 
without popular stars. Then she hasn't good tastes, 
either; they are not marcelling their hair now, and 
ear drops are all the rage. And just look, she hasn't 
one bit of jewelry on, not even a ring." 

"Jewelry!" snapped Uncle Howard, "what is 
jewelry? It certainly is not the product of an in- 
tellectual brain — it is the product of savagery, and 
a symbol of despotism. Talk about breeding better 
dogs, if people would devote more thought to breed- 
ing better children the world would be a lot better 
off. Look at the master mind behind those eyes — 
there is the result of a well-mated ancestry." This 
closed Ethel up for quite a while, needless to say. 

After bowing two or three times, the young lady 
stepped back and closed the curtains as had the oth- 
ers. This time, however, no reader appeared over 
them, but after a few seconds they slowly parted, 
displaying a seashore scene with large waves dash- 
ing against the rocks. Suddenly the scene seemed 
to be growing dim and a little mass of moving mat- 
ter appeared behind a powerful magnifying glass, 
and changed its shape several times, apparently very 
much at ease. Then over this appeared the fol- 
lowing reader: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 19 

LIFE IS EVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION IS 
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FROM 
THE SIMPLE TO THE SUBLIMER FORMS 
OF LIFE AND BODIES 

"Watch this closely, children," said Uncle How- 
ard, "this is going to be something worth while. 
That is the Amoeba, the lowest form of animal life 
known to modern science, and is composed of but 
one cell. And look, it is changing into a spongue," 
as the reader disappeared, "and now into a coral ; 
and here comes the worm ; and the leach ; how won- 
derful the suggestion when you recall that this — 
'the organic process/ as the Biologists call it, re- 
quires centuries — yes, thousands of years for one 
of these animals to evolve into the more sublime. 
And here is the salamander; and now the duck-bill 
— this is the first egg-laying animal that suckles 
its young. Having no nipples, the young lap the 
hairless belly of the mother, from which they re- 
ceive a milky nourishment, appearing as does our 
perspiration. They have the feet and beak of the 
duck while their bodies are covered with hair." 

By this time both Owen and Ethel were leaning 
far over towards Uncle Howard while watching the 
screen with deepest interest, and Alice suggested 
that she change seats with him, whereby there would 
be two of us on either side, rendering it possi- 
ble for all to hear with ease, and not necessitat- 



20 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ing his speaking above a whisper and annoying 
others. 

"This is the opossum," he continued — "look at 
the heads of those little fellows sticking out of that 
pouch. This class of animals are known as the 
marsupium, and are the lowest animals that hatch 
the egg within the womb. Their young are born 
in quite a premature state, minute, nude and blind, 
and are placed in the marsupial pouch by the moth- 
er, who places the nipple in the mouth. These are 
the lowest form of animals possessing the nipple; 
then as they are too feeble to suckle, she forces 
the milk into their mouths by exercising some vol- 
untary abdominal muscle. There are about twenty- 
seven different animals in this group, I believe — 
the kangaroo being the largest." 

By this time the orangoutang had appeared, and 
was fading into a primitive man, whose body was 
covered with hair, and whose arms were so long 
that his hands extended below his knees. He had 
practically no chin nor forehead, his nose was very 
broad and flat, and his chest Was deep and broad. 
Then it seemed that the outer edges of the camera 
lens closed in, making the screen dark from the 
outside towards the center, until the picture had en- 
tirely disappeared, which act we will hereinafter 
speak of as "fading out." 

Then came the leech we had seen before and 
faded into a lizard, which then dissolved into a 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 21 

snake. Uncle Howard here explained to us that a 
snake is a lizard without feet, and a lizard is a snake 
with feet, and that many of our snakes when dis- 
sected are found to have remnants of legs within. 
He also told us that for thousands of years there 
was a struggle between man and reptile as to which 
should rule the planet, and that this instinct of fear 
still survives within us, causing us to shiver at the 
sight of a snake, however small it might be. 

After the scene of the snake faded out, the duck- 
bill again appeared and dissolved into an ant-eater 
which then faded into a sloth and was followed by 
a beaver. Then it seemed that the scene became 
further away, and before I realized just what 
changes took place, there appeared many animals 
which neither Alice nor I had ever seen or even 
heard of, while all the rest seemed quite familiar 
with most of them, and explained that fossilized 
carcasses of nearly all of them could be seen in large 
museums. Some had very long bodies, and yet had 
only two feet; others had very long necks, while 
still others seemed to have practically no necks at 
all. Later Uncle Howard told us much about them. 
He said that this was the study of Paleontology, 
and that all these animals lived in the Prehistoric 
Age. One of them that had two large legs and two 
very short ones — the short ones with long claws 
which did not touch the ground, he explained as 
>*a contemporary of the oldest known bird—a gigan- 



22 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

tic reptile that lived over forty million years ago, 
when the ancestors of birds and higher quadrupeds 
were slowly developing from their primitive reptile 
ancestors, and were still reptile-like in many re- 
spects. A mounted skeleton of one of them, thirty- 
six feet long and about fourteen feet high, stands 
in the American Museum of Natural History, Cen- 
tral Park, New York City, and is called the Allo- 
saurus. 

"Reptiles were supreme everywhere — on sea and 
on land and in the air. Their rulership of the world 
was not so bloody and masterful as man's, but quite 
as remorseless. Imagine an aristocracy made up of 
flying reptiles with teeth, and measuring twenty 
feet between wing-tips; great serpent reptiles and 
fish reptiles, enormous bandits of the seas; and 
giant land lizards like the largest one which was 
shown at the extreme right and known as the At- 
lantosaurs, fifteen feet high and from fifty to one 
hundred feet long. 'A government of demagogues 
is bad enough, as king-ridden mankind well knows, 
but dragons would be worse, if possible/ says Prof. 
J. Howard Moore, in 'The Universal Kinship/ who 
also maintains that the Atlantosaurs were the larg- 
est animals that have ever walked upon the earth. ,, 

Another queer looking animal, he said, was to be 
seen in the New York Museum, the Brontosaurus, 
whose skeleton measures nearly seventy feet. 
"There you will find also two complete skeletons. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 23 

of the Dinosaurus, each thirty feet long, which were 
gigantic land reptiles that ruled the Earth before 
the hoofed and clawed mammals appeared. Among 
those others were, the Tricheratop, whose skulls 
have been found as long as eight feet ; the Moropus, 
which was a horse-like animal, eight feet high at 
the shoulders, and with enormous sharp-hooked 
claws on the front feet and smaller ones on the hind 
feet, with an eight-foot body, and skull and neck 
six feet long; gigantic rhinoceroses, weighing ten 
tons, called the Brontotherium, which had horns 
across his nose; dwarfed rhinoceroses no longer 
than a common hog, and others were gigantic fero- 
cious hogs, six feet high and called Dinohyus." 

After the scene of these queer looking animals 
was shown for a short while, a number of primitive 
peoples were shown to be engaged in making some 
queer shaped bowls of clay, some of which were 
nearly as tall as they were, while others were small- 
er, and would hold, perhaps, not more than four or 
five gallons. I suppose they were for storing food. 
These people all had very queer shaped heads, and 
their bodies were covered with long hair. 

Suddenly the scene began to grow dim, when a 
large mountain of ice appeared and seemed to be 
drawing near, and before I had time to think, or 
ask Uncle Howard what he thought of it, all these 
animals and peoples were struggling in one 
great mass at the water's edge. Some were plung- 



24 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ing into it, while most of them were fighting among 
themselves, and finally, all were crushed under the 
advancing ice. It seemed also that darkness was 
growing upon the scene, and after all the animals 
had disappeared, the scene grew further away 
again, and just before it faded entirely away, the 
Earth was shown in a distance, entirely enveloped 
in ice. 

"Wonderful, wonderful," insisted Uncle Howard, 
as Alice and I looked at each other in a very non- 
understanding way. 

The scene then opened with President Wilson sit- 
ting in his library; he was reading from a large 
book — one of perhaps four hundred pages, and 
sheets of paper lay scattered upon his desk. 

"What does this mean — the President reading a 
book?" asked Owen, himself answering after a sec- 
ond's pause, "Oh, I see through it all now : he is re- 
viewing the history of the 'origin of man/ and he is 
preparing a message; I wonder what the message 
can be," and at this instance the scene shifted and 
part of the page of the President's book was shown, 
which was as follows: 

108 THE STONE AGE 

gradually became dense and cold, and thus losing 
its radiant power; and after being enveloped with 
ice for many millions of years, our new sun was 
formed, which warmed the planet causing the ice 
to recede, and again life came. This time however 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 25 

"What," said Uncle Howard, "the Glacial Period 
caused by a Sun growing cold and our present Sun 
not the one which warmed the Earth in the Pre- 
historic Age? I have read a good many books on 
Geology and Astronomy, but nothing that even 
hinted such a philosophy. Yet, it seems logical — 
the spectroscope has assured us that all planets are 
of the same composition — the science of Cosmology 
has revealed that they are formed by the same pro- 
cess and according to astronomers the Sun is shrink- 
ing at the rate of one hundred and twenty feet 
per year, and, of course, with this shrinkage it 
is growing denser and colder, so the assumption 
that the Earth was once a sun is not at all unrea- 
sonable. The Sun is now about one-fourth the 
density of the Earth, while Jupiter is but one- 
half. Yes, it is highly possible that this theory 
is correct; but, oh my, how it will be ridiculed 
by the 'learned professors' for a few years. You 
know it is impossible for anything new to be dis- 
covered and become an established truth, by an 
'unrecognized' person when there are profes- 
sionals in the business who are University gradu- 
ates, and know all about everything. That would 
be very unethical." 

By this time the scene of the book page had dis- 
appeared and the amobea, spongue, coral, worm, to 
man, etc. — "the organic process," was being re- 
peated quite rapidly. This time, however, all other 



26 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

mammals besides man were excluded. 

As the primitive man emerged, the scene faded 
into a number of them gathering berries in a berry- 
patch, and placing them in large earthen bowls. 
There were apparently about the same number of 
men as there were women, but the men were not 
helping fill the bowls. About all they seemed to 
be doing was walking leisurely about, each watch- 
ing all the others as if he were afraid of his 
wife being stolen. In the distance appeared a 
couple, the man carrying the bowl, and as they 
drew near we recognized them as being Mr. Carson 
and Miss Martin. Carson's long hair and woolly 
body and face, and his breechclout made of straw, 
and Miss Martin's leopard skin clothing (as all 
were dressed) , also that we were not expecting to see 
them here, caused us to again wonder just what was 
coming. They came very near and set the bowl 
down, and both commenced picking berries; they 
were chatting merrily, and seemed to be more con- 
genial than were any of the others. 

Suddenly, and at the same instant, all looked up as 
if very much alarmed, then started running, leav- 
ing their berries behind, and no more had they 
started than the Despot appeared in hot pur- 
suit, his only wearing apparel being a straw breech- 
clout also. 

The scene then shifted, showing a high cliff, the 
side of which was full of holes or caves, into which 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 27 

these people were scrambling. There were some 
caves near the ground while others were high up 
the side of the cliff, and although the Despot had 
passed many of them, all the inhabitants were 
equally excited, acting as if afraid he would devour 
each and every one. It was plain to be seen that it 
was Miss Martin (hereinafter called Nell) he was 
after. She entered the cave a few feet behind Carson 
just as the Despot was about to catch her. The cave 
entrance, however, was too small to admit him, and 
he turned about for a moment, studying how he 
might get her. With gnashing teeth and a look of 
determination to have her at any cost, he climbed 
down the side of the cliff and disappeared, as all 
the inhabitants appeared at their cave openings, 
watching his procedure with intense interest. Then, 
as quick as a flash all darted back into their caves 
as he appeared, carrying a pole about twelve feet 
long, and proceeded to get his victim. 

Suddenly stones began flying thick and fast from 
the cave, one striking him squarely on top of the 
head and throwing him head first to the ground, 
but as he was such a terrible giant, it stunned him 
for a moment only and soon he was up, looking 
more enraged than ever. Again he climbed towards 
the cave entrance, and succeeded in reaching it 
through a shower of rocks, many of which struck 
him with no effect except to make him all the more 
angry. 



28 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

As he reached the mouth of the cave he began 
jabbing into it with the large end of his pole, and 
soon the stones ceased flying. It seemed for a sec- 
ond that his pole had become fastened, when with 
a great heave he jerked Carson, who had been hold- 
ing on to it, into sight. The Despot tried to catch 
him by the hand but he got away, and after several 
such attempts to drag the pole from him (the Des- 
pot), Carson held on too long and was seized by 
the hand and dragged out, and after a severe chok- 
ing was thrown to the ground below with terrific 
force. 

The Despot then proceeded to bring Nell out by 
twisting the pole in her hair, and as soon as she 
was dragged to the open, he gave the pole a quick 
jerk which tore out most of it, and threw it to the 
ground (at which Ethel screamed quite loud) ; then 
picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder 
as if she were but a rag doll, he carried her away. 

"I have visited the caverns of the old Cliff Dwell- 
ers along the Rio Grande River and this is very 
interesting,' , whispered Owen, as the scene started 
to fade away, and the following appeared over it 
in very large letters: 

AND MIGHT WAS RIGHT 

Again the book was shown just as the President 
was turning a page, showing the next one : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 29 



128 THE SATURNIAN AGE 

as the soil was very fertile in all the elements 
which Nature requires to make a strong and healthy 
body, and a clean, moral, and intellectual brain; 
and as there was no pandering of the false tastes 
of the people by unscrupulous food-manufactur- 
ers (assisted by clever ad-writers and endorsed 
by "scientific authorities", congressmen, etc.), 
who remove any or all of the twelve elements 
which Nature places in them to combat disease, 
and who use some twenty injurious and poisonous 
substances in embalming foods, which render it 
possible to hold said foods for top prices under the 
eyes of starving thousands; there was pure water 
to drink and pure air to breathe, no poisonous 
drugs and tobacco, no intoxicating liquor available, 
and men were non-polygamous. Thus intelligence 
grew very rapidly in the peoples of the Stone Age, 
and, through arbitration, MIGHT was relinquished 
to RIGHT, which marked the birth of the Golden 
or Saturnian Age, which lasted 1,728,000 years, 
and the people were free from restrain of laws; 
tradition, graft, and politics were yet unborn, and 
there were no private or co-operative interests to 
blight and crush the ambitions of the genius. They 
had neither ships nor weapons, wars nor soldiers, 
were all giants and lived upwards of 400 years; 
mutual and congenial love ruled the home, and 
each strove for: first, the consolation of his mate 
and children, then for the welfare of the whole 
race. 



30 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"Wonderful, the reaction from that, wonderful," 
said Uncle Howard, "and there's only one reason 
why such a life is not possible today. — that reason 
is in the form of a disease; that disease is selfish- 
ness." Owen took a long breath and Ethel squirmed 
in her seat as the scene faded out with the page 
turning. 

The picture then opened inside a primitive home, 
which seemed to be a realm of happiness for the 
occupants, Carson and Nell and two children, a boy 
about eight years old and a girl of about six. They 
were all dressed in similar garments, which ex- 
tended to the knees and elbows, and seemed to be 
made from grass which was very artistically 
woven. Of this I am quite sure, as Nell was weav- 
ing one, while Carson was making a basket from 
coarser yet similar material. The children were 
playing in the center of the room. 

They seemed to have very dark skin, and their 
long, coarse black hair was parted in the middle 
and braided in two large braids. There were many 
odd looking things about the room, none of which 
I have ever seen, but Owen said they were all to 
be seen in museums. 

This faded out after a few seconds and was fol- 
lowed by an exterior scene, showing the door of 
this home at which Carson appeared with a small 
bowl, or rather it seemed to be more of an urn in 
his hand, and as he stopped and turned to kiss Nell 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 31 

goodbye the children darted out under his arms, 
and were romping and scuffling as they followed 
their father to gather food, while Nell stood in the 
doorway laughing at their capers. 

Just as she was closing the door the Despot 
came creeping around the corner of the house, 
watching Carson as he disappeared through the 
brush and trees. 

The scene shifted back to the interior of the home 
showing Nell working away upon her garment. The 
door gradually began to open and the Despot was 
inside the room before she knew any one was near. 
She did not get excited as the average woman of 
today would, but looked at him in her usual kind 
way; yet she seemed puzzled and at a loss for a 
reason for his presence, while he with his ravag- 
ing countenance hesitated a moment, then leaped 
upon her like a cat leaping upon a mouse. The 
scene shifted to the berry-patch where Carson was 
busy filling his bowl, when suddenly he stopped 
picking and looked up as if he were thinking there 
was something wrong at home. As he hurriedly 
started off, the camera seemed to swing around in 
a way which followed him, and when but a short 
distance away the children were shown gathering 
flowers, and their father beckoned them to follow. 

The scene shifted to the interior of the home with 
Nell just regaining consciousness, the Despot hav- 
ing fled. The father and children entered and Car- 



32 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

son gathered her in his arms as she revealed the 
tragedy, while tears fell from his eyes upon her 
cheek. The children looked on in their "puzzled way, 
while the little girl tried to console her mother by 
offering her the flowers she had gathered. 

Suddenly the door opened with a slam and the 
Despot leaped in and upon Carson and threw him 
to the floor after his giant fingers had sunk deeply 
into his throat. Then he grabbed Nell and threw 
her out the door, knocking the children aside as if 
they were but sticks in his way, and as the scene 
was fading out, a reader appeared over it in large 
letters : 

AND MIGHT WAS RIGHT 

No one said a word, but all at about the same 
instant straightened up in their seats and took a 
deep breath. 

The scene opened showing the President turning 
a page in his book at the end of the chapter and a 
new chapter was shown : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 33 

THE BIRTH OF AUTOCRACY 
THE SILVER AGE 

When vice began to creep into the world — as 
man developed a polygamous appetite, and through 
sheer brute-force caused woman to yield to his 
gratifications, the mating instinct, which is the 
most powerful and beautiful instinct existing, and 
upon which is founded the physical and intellect- 
ual success of any herd, tribe, or race, was lost. 
Man grew selfish and vain, and caused himself to 
believe that happiness existed only where self con- 
solation was possible; laziness and brutality to 
women increased, and she, through fear of ridicule, 
chastisement, or execution, petted and fawned 
upon him as he forced her to feed him with the 
sweat of her brow, while his own hands were idle. 
Her version of happiness was escaping pain, and 
the more cruel and haughtily she was treated, the 
more she crowned him with laurels; then he 
laughed at her and called her THE WEAKER SEX, 
and the leopard has not changed his spots — the 
same law governs society today to a great degree. 

This terrible wave of degradation marked the 
close of the Saturnian Age, and gave birth to the 
Silver or Autocratic Age, which lasted 1,296,000 
years in all, and the people lived but 300 years ow- 
ing to the increase of vice. 

(143) 

As the page was turning the scene faded out and 
opened with the Despot fighting a duel with an- 
other very large man. They were dressed very 
peculiarly. It seemed that they each had a long 
cloth of some sort wrapped around their heads, 



34 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

while they wore beaded gowns which extended al- 
most to the knees. There were many others stand- 
ing about who were watching ttie fight with 
much interest; also many slaves who were the 
guards or soldiers were standing with long spear- 
tipped poles and clubs in their hands. These, too, 
had their heads wrapped with some sort of cloth. 

The Despot was victorious, and as the crowd was 
cheering their new king and the defeated man was 
kissing his feet, the scene faded out; then immedi- 
ately opened showing the interior of a sumptuous 
palace, which Uncle Howard seemed to think was 
hardly elaborate enough to be of the Egyptian type, 
yet he knew not what kind nor where it may have 
been, as it represented an epoch in history much 
older than any he had ever found records of. At 
any rate, the king was seated in a mammoth and 
handsomely carved chair, picking from the throng 
that was passing, the prettiest women for his 
harem, while the husbands of these unfortunate 
women were forced to go away without them — his 
slaves occasionally punching one with a spear as 
he grieved in useless protest. 

Carson and Nell appeared in the crowd after a 
short while, and when he saw Nell he smiled broadly 
and rolled his knaving eyes as he ordered her to be 
seated at his feet — laughing at Carson as he passed 
on, weeping bitterly and looking back at Nell, whose 
face was buried in her lap, weeping also. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 35 

The scene then faded out and opened in another 
room which also was elaborately decorated. Near 
the king were seated many beautiful women, one of 
which was Nell, while others were lying about the 
room on pillows. Some were almost nude and danc- 
ing before him, while still others were placing a 
beaded crown upon his head and rings and beads 
upon his fingers and toes; and just as the epoch 
was closing, Carson appeared up in the corner of 
the picture wringing his hands in despair, after 
which all faded out. 

"The intelligence behind the present day Autoc- 
racy is not one bit above that," whispered Uncle 
Howard. "It is even worse, for HIS ambition de- 
sires that all those whom HE cannot use for personal 
profit be crushed. That's what tradition has done 
for the world — it has perpetuated such fallacies 
throughout all the ages. Man is superior to woman 
because might is right — he is three and she is one ; 
she is not welcomed into the world at birth, as 
every parent wants a boy baby; kind words are 
seldom said to her and never about her until she is 
dead; she is but a commodity for him, and she will 
thus remain until the perseverance of intelligence 
shall dethrone ignorance." 

By this time the page ending the chapter of the 
book which the President was reading, had turned 
and the first page of a new chapter was upon the 
screen, which was as follows: 



36 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

THE BIRTH OF SUPERSTITION 
THE BRAZEN AGE 

"Superstition is a combination 
of imagination with ignorance," 

Although the common peoples had helplessly 
observed their superiors enjoying privileges which 
were denied them throughout the Silver Age, they 
were not at all satisfied with such activities and 
finally conceived the idea of organization. Their 
strength had been but the strength of one man, 
while the strength of the rulers was the combined 
strength of all his guards. This brought revolu- 
tion which marked the close of the Silver Age, and 
the birth of the Brazen Age, which lasted 864,000 
years in all. It was violent and savage, and marked 
with numerous wars, and owing to the increase of 
vice, man lived but 200 years. All wars, however, 
were won by the ruling class — Autocracy, which, 
immediately upon realizing its helplessness against 
righteousness and the combined physical strength 
of the servants, invented superstition (which, like 
man's predominance over woman, still survives) 
by which they were subdued and caused to beg for 
mercy. However, this superstition did not attempt 
to foil vice but openly encouraged it — women were 
made to believe that it was a virtue to be ap- 
proached by a ruler, and to satisfy his gratifica- 
tions. 

Woman looked upon man with fear and ab- 

(157) 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 37 

"I don't see any sense in making all these quota- 
tations about people living from two to four hundred 
years, and if one would figure up all the years that 
this thing claims the world has stood, I think it 
would amount to about fifty millions ; it is perfectly 
absurd," snapped Ethel as part of the following 
page of the President's book was shown : 

158 THE BRAZEN AGE 

horrence and always received him with reproach, 
and embryologists will unanimously agree that it 
would he impossible for each offspring to be other 
than more furious than the parents. 

Man's only ambition was to be a ruler, there- 
fore, he did nothing but fight, and force women 
to supply him with food, provide him with shelter 
and furnish him with clothing; his body was pollu- 
ted with disease, and he tore her down physically 
with himself, and had it not been for the presence 
of an occasional genius, who possessed the ability 
to observe beyond such fallacies, doubtless, the 
race would have become extinct during this age. 

And Ethel went on : "I heard Dr. Gray, who is 
the dean of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, say 
recently, that it is just 6218 years since God made 
Adam; he is a very nice man and everybody likes 
him, and he certainly must know what he is talk- 
ing about or he couldn't hold such a position as 
that. And there's one thing sure, and that is I am 
not one bit superstitious. Why, I would just as 
soon start on a trip on Friday the thirteenth as 



38 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

any other day." 

Uncle Howard made several notes -in his little 
book and we could see that he was highly pleased 
with the morale, but he made no comment; how- 
ever, he smiled broadly at what Ethel had to say, 
and then seemed as much surprised at Owen's 
answer as I was. Owen said: 

"There is no doubt that Dr. Gray was conscien- 
tious in making such a statement, and I need not 
attack his personal integrity, nor do I want to in- 
jure your feelings by saying that the source of his 
evidence is but mediaeval dreams — it is honest 
ignorance with him, and he would no more believe 
it if he knew anything about Paleontology than a 
chemist believes Jesus made wine out of water; 
while the evidence herein put forth is facts. His- 
tory's pages in the rocks are as intelligible to the 
eye of the modern Geologist as are the words on 
that screen to yours. Doubtless the World is up- 
wards of one hundred million years old." 

What surprised us so much was to find that Owen 
knew all this, for all he ever seemed inclined to talk 
about was his good dancing and his faculty for mak- 
ing love to any and all the ladies he cared to ap- 
proach, his great foot-ball career, and his ability 
to compile college yells; all of which we had ex- 
plained to Uncle Howard at the supper table. 

A desperate struggle between an infuriated mob 
and the guards of a king was now being shown, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 39 

fighting near the opened gates of a very high wall 
which surrounded his castle. The king (the Des- 
pot) was directing the fighting — forcing his men 
at the point of a long sharp spear. However, he 
did not remain long. As soon as he saw that vic- 
tory was impossible, he retreated through, and 
closed the gates, leaving his guards to the mercy of 
the mob. Immediately they surrendered and joined 
in the attack upon the king, and soon the united 
forces were battering down the gates with large and 
long poles which they bore upon their shoulders. 
Carson was the director, but instead of driving the 
forces with a spear at their backs, he was leading 
them and was one of the hardest fighters. 

The scene shifted to the interior of the garden, 
showing the gates as they gave way under the 
strain, and soon the mob came pouring in by the 
thousands, it seemed, while the theatre fairly shook 
with the applause of the audience — Ethel being 
among the most enthused. 

In the distance we could see a very strange ob- 
ject but were unable to tell just what it might be. 
It seemed that this was now the center of attrac- 
tion, for the mob was raging towards it. We were 
quite sure, however, that it was a stronger fortifi- 
cation of the king's, but when the scene shifted 
to a closer view, it proved to be quite the contrary. 
The object was a statue of a very desperate look- 
ing animal. It looked something like an alligator 



40 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

I saw in a show one time, but it was a hundred 
times more furious looking. Owen said it was a 
dragon — the God, which the people worshiped. In 
front of this strange thing was a priest kneeling 
and praying, while the king stood near with raised 
hands, ordering the mob to stop ; and as they neared, 
the priest arose, raising one hand towards them, 
while with the other he touched the tongue of the 
dragon from which leaped great sparks of elec- 
tricity. Carson urged them to crush both the king 
and the priest, but they only turned upon him and 
bore him to the ground, and as the scene faded out 
they were kissing the king's feet and the hem of his 
garments, and kneeling before the priest. 

"The dragons of primitive men were made from 
copper or bronze/' explained Uncle Howard, as the 
final scene was in progress, "and after standing in 
all kinds of weather for a long while, they became 
charged with static electricity, and when any one 
touched it with their bare hands and the ground 
was damp, the current was grounded through them, 
and it was the duty of the priest to educate the 
common people that this was the wrath of the 
Divine Spirit, and that it had been brought about 
by their disobedience to his revealed laws. The 
priest taught them that he was the mediator be- 
tween them and this Divine Spirit, and that should 
they refuse to be meek and obedient to him and the 
king, after this warning, they would be wiped off 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 41 

the face of the earth." 

He has since told us much about these ancient 
gods. Some of them, he says, were hollow and were 
made of stone, and when the food supply of the 
priests became low, they would inform the people 
that they had received a revelation from the Di- 
vinity, that he was about to allow his wrath to 
fall upon them, and that their only means of 
escape was to "offer up" large quantities of the 
choicest meat, by placing it at the foot of the god 
where the Divinity would come "in the darkness of 
the night and devour the spirit of the meat", leav- 
ing the flesh for them (the priests) ; and if they 
(the people) were inclined to be skeptical about 
these revelations and did not respond quickly with 
the sacrifices, the priests would build a fire inside 
the hollow of the god, and when they saw the smoke 
rolling from the top of the image, they would often 
hurry to sacrifice their last morsel of food. 

"Read the tenth verse of the third chapter of 
Malachi," he told us, "and you may see some things 
in life which you have heretofore not observed." 

"The Chinese funeral of today," he told us later, 
"is marked with a custom which has evolved from 
this source. After the deceased has been buried, 
his friends never fail to place a roast pig, stuffed 
with dressing and all the other 'trimmins , — salads, 
cake, etc., upon the head of the grave, which is fol- 
lowed by a scene of feasting hobos at nightfall." 



42 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Following the demonstration before the king and 
his priest and dragon, the President's book ap- 
peared as the page was turning, closing the chap- 
ter, and two pages of a new chapter were shown: 

THE HEROIC AGE 

Through the resourceful work of a very few 
individuals of high moral caliber and profound 
integrity, Autocracy weakened at times and re- 
ceived numerous defeats, which marked the close 
of the Brazen Age, and simultaneously the birth 
of the Heroic Age; so named, in honor of these 
courageous few. However, superstition lingered 
and exploitation upon women grew. Virgins were 
annually sold at public auction to the highest bid- 
ders, and it was the sacred duty of every woman, 
humble or high-brow, to at some time during her 
life, publicly prostitute herself to attract strangers 
to the city of Bael (Babylonia). This sacrifice 
was paid for by the strangers and to the fathers 
and husbands of these women, who in turn spent 
it lavishly upon the king and the priests, (for po- 
litical influence) purchasing for them beautiful 
garments and erecting mammoth castles, while 
they themselves were poorly clad, and their wives 
often shivered from lack of clothing and comfort- 
able shelter, and were weak from hunger. 

*"True insight into natural phenomena was pre- 
vented and progress beyond the surface of things 
stopped by their religion, which had a multitude of 
gods, who were supposed to bring about in an ir- 
regular and capricious manner all the changes in 
nature, and all the misfortunes which happened to 

♦American College Course, Volume 2, page 20. 
(184) 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 43 

"The world has seen thousands of gods," whis- 
pered Uncle Howard, "every one of them was ten- 
der and loving, bloodthirsty and hateful, and all 
insisted upon having a vast number of priests whose 
hands could never work, and yet whose mouths 
were to be fed. The business of these priests was 
to tell the people of the great power which was in 
the hands of their god, and how easily HE could 
conquer, not only them, but all the other gods, and 
their peoples as well ; and queerest of all, as it may 
seem to many people of today, no god would ever 
allow them (the priests) to engage in battle. 

"They pointed out to their peoples the ease with 
which their god and his angels placed the Sun in a 
hole in the Earth at night time ; later, they told them 
that HE carried it around the Earth at night, and 
that he at one time held the Sun in the palms of 
His hands for three days so HIS chosen people might 
win a great battle. Some of these gods had 
thousands of arms and millions of eyes, and were 
so precise in keeping their records that they even 
counted the hairs in every head that entered their 
kingdoms" 

The next page of the President's book was then 
shown : 



44 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

THE HEROIC AGE 185 

the people; thus foresight and medicine were neg- 
lected, and unavailing prayers and useless sacrifices 
offered to propitiate the deities who were imagined 
to hold the destiny of the human race in their 
hands." 

"Poets polished their literary gems with a gloss 
of mythology and were rewarded by the priests for 
so doing.'' This, too, society has little changed. 

At their annual marriage markets when all 
marriageable daughters were congregated for the 
auction, the most beautiful were selected by the 
priests to be sacrificed to the God, upon whose lap 
they were placed to die of starvation, or to be de- 
voured by the lions if they jumped, the worshipers 
believed; but after they had retired the priests 
came and took away the sacrifices to their temples 
and kept them there until they grew tired of them, 
whereupon they were exported to other regions and 
sold. Thus White Slavery was practiced over 4,000 
years ago. 

This age lasted 432,000 years in all, and owing to 
the rapid increase of vice — which limitation — im- 
pairment of intellectual and physical vigor, caused 
man's life to shorten to 100 years. 

The Heroic Age ended with the fall of Rome 
A. D. 476. 

"These priests taught their peoples to believe that 
most of their prayers would be answered, provid- 
ing they were loyal to them (the priests) and their 
kings, while at the same time they would point out 
the ridiculousness of the other tribes, claiming that 
their prayers were answered also. Each creed was 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 45 

so convinced that all the good in the world was 
contained in their narrow confines, that all others 
were branded vicious and immoral ; and our present 
day religious ethics have changed but little. 

"Recently I heard the choir leader of one of our 
great evangelists say that the Kaiser is foolish 
enough to believe that he is an apostle of God and 
can hold divine communication with him every day, 
immediately after which he sang his favorite song : 
'I Walk And I Talk With the King\ 

"The truth is, even if these priests are yet able 
to throw sand into the eyes of a vast majority of 
people, intelligence is growing slowly, and thinkers 
are being less persecuted than in olden days — no 
more burning at the stake nor tongues torn out 
with red-hot pincers in the hands of priests for his- 
torical criticism; not because the desire is not there 
still, but because of the lack of power. Science is 
daily opening many fields long hid in myth and con- 
jure behind their robes — man has begun to realize 
that his greatest benefactors have been: not those 
who have filled his mind with dreams, fear and 
superstition, selfishness, lies and greed, but those 
who have brushed the mediaeval thorns of ignor- 
ance from his path and strewn it with flowers of 
harmony, love and truth, justice, knowledge and 
freedom. 

"I heard this same great evangelist say that the 
universities are teaching too many isms and ologies, 



46 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

which are yielding too many Free-thinkers, and is 
one of the curses of the times. He also said : 'You 
give Evolution full swing and you Will have two 
hemispheres of crime and a thousand penitentiaries 
and lazarettos and brothels/ We would stand a fine 
chance in winning this war without our universi- 
ties, with their science and 'ologies,' and of political 
economy he knows about as much as a four-year old 
child. 

"The motives of priests have ever been and will 
always be the same, and mental slavery will sur- 
vive as long as they exist." And then he recited one 
of his favorite epigrams : 

"All good is product of truth — truth is deduc- 
tion from facts — facts pervade myths in the per- 
meating eyes of the intelligent; lies are products of 
desire — desire flatters the trusting minds of inno- 
cence — suckles the life-blood and throttles the am- 
bition of the child — from the deception and mis- 
education of the child springs all evil." 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 47 

THE MARRIAGE MARKET OF BABYLON 

appeared in a reader, after which a marriage mar- 
ket was shown in progress. Many maidens were 
waiting, while several were being led away by their 
purchasers, and one was upon the slave block being 
auctioned off. When the bidders quit she was pro- 
nounced "sold" and as she descended another came 
up, and when she turned we saw that it was Nell. 

"I think that is nonsense," snapped Ethel, "to be 
using the same characters in different ages. I don't 
believe in transmigration of the soul; perhaps if I 
lived in the Orient I would appreciate it more." 

"Transmigration the dickens!" echoed Uncle 
Howard, "there is not the least hint of it. Didn't 
you see the symbolizing, as each character was 
introduced? The man who wrote this doesn't 
harbor a single metaphysical thought. But when 
we think it over seriously, can we say that our mod- 
ern marriage markets are very much better than 
those? When a city woman or man wish to pro- 
cure a mate for a dog or cat, or a farmer seeks one 
for his horses, hogs, or cattle, the first thing they 
take into consideration is health and stamina, and 
then they inquire about the pedigree; but when a 
daughter tells her parents she has selected the man 
she wishes for her husband, it is the duty of the fa- 
ther to look up the commercial rating of his prospec- 
tive son-in-law — -'How much money has he got?' 



48 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Did you ever wonder why there are no feeble minded 
or insane domestic animals?" after which not a 
word was spoken for some time. 

She had but reached the third step in ascend- 
ing upon the slave-block when the priest caught a 
glimpse of her, and immediately ordered her to be 
taken away to be offered as a sacrifice to the god. 
The king, who was seated nearby, elaborately dressed 
and in an easy and magnificent chair, nodded his 
approval. Carson was standing among the bidders 
and looked as if he would like to crush the throats 
of both the priest and the king, as the former's eyes 
plainly disclosed his motive, which was unseen by 
the ignorant mass, and which they would not even 
think of suspecting. As his wicked eyes followed 
Nell and her bearers (the slaves) away, the scene 
faded out. 

The scene opened showing the interior of a large 
garden, somewhat similar to the one previously 
shown, only smaller. In the center of this one was 
a large statue which was perhaps twenty feet high. 
It was in a sitting position, and perhaps eight or 
ten feet to the lap. This was the god to whom 
the sacrifice was to be made. 

Presently the worshipers appeared, led by the 
king and priest, and followed closely by Nell and 
her supporters — the slaves. They proceeded to the 
god upon the lap of which she was immediately lift- 
ed; and after a brief ceremony wherein the priest 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 49 

first knelt and kissed the feet of the god, then 
arose and waved his arms high in the air and made 
many bows, concluding his services by turning to the 
audience who were all on their knees, and with his 
head lifted and eyes closed, made a short prayer; 
after which all withdrew, leaving Nell alone and 
very much frightened. 

Differing from the other garden, this one had 
slatted gates, or rather they were made from tim- 
bers about the size of what we call four-by-fours, 
on the farm, while the other one had solid gates and 
much heavier. 

As the last of the worshipers passed through the 
gates they were closed behind them, and as they 
turned and were looking through them at the sacri- 
ficed one for the last time, the scene shifted, showing 
the interior of a lion's den, which was a high walled 
enclosure (about the same height of the garden wall) 
and perhaps fifty feet square. There were two lions 
in it and when a slave opened the gate (working 
from above) , they bounded out and toward the god 
and the sacrifice at top speed, and when about half 
way there the scene shifted to the previous one as the 
worshipers were turning with hands over eyes. Not 
wishing to see the bloody feast, they disappeared, 
seemingly very much grieved. 

Then the scene shifted back to the first position, 
showing the lions coming rapidly as Nell cringed 
with agony, and I am quite sure that every women 



50 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

in the house screamed, while several near fainted. 
Alice had her hand on my arm, and it seemed that 
she sank her finger nails into the flesh so deep that 
the circulation almost stopped. 

When less than thirty yards away, a fence, which 
had been secreted in the dust, raised on all four 
sides, entirely enclosing the god and saving Nell 
from the gnashing teeth of the ferocious beasts ; and 
as they bounded against the fence a very sanctified 
looking woman across the aisle from me shouted at 
the top of her voice: "Oh praise the Lord!", and 
then became quite huffy when everybody laughed. 

The scene shifted back to the den where the slave 
was pounding against the door with a club and was 
throwing meat upon the ground, and soon the lions 
were again closed behind the gates. 

Immediately the priest and several slaves ap- 
peared upon the scene, and after laying back the 
fence, proceeded to take Nell away. She was fright- 
ened almost into insanity, it seemed, and fought 
them furiously; and as the slaves bore her away, 
half dragging her, the scene faded out, while the 
priest was laughing at the ignorance of the wor- 
shipers. 

Following this the President was shown to be se- 
lecting several books from his library shelves, after 
which he walked to his desk and laid them down, 
seated himself, opened one, and began reading. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 51 

ACCORDING TO FRENCH HISTORY 

appeared in a reader, and what followed was so 
different from anything I have ever seen in pictures 
that I hardly know how to describe it. It seemed 
that Carson was the son of a French nobleman, and 
was a strong advocate of freedom of speech and 
freedom of religion, and openly found fault with 
the union of State and Church. 

The king was a willy-nilly sort of a fellow who 
feared dethroning should he commit himself either 
for or against, but the queen was firm, and seemed 
to be so eager to regain this union that she was 
willing to resort to anything that might bring it 
about, and was in favor of killing all the Calvin- 
ists. Their daughter (Nell), however, was very 
much in favor of freedom of both religion and of 
speech, and in her sweet way did all in her power 
to extract promises from her father that he would 
never consent to the persecution of the reformers. 
Carson and Nell were seen together very much by 
her uncle, the king's brother, which was much to his 
disliking, as he had a worthless creditor whose son 
was much enamored of the young princess. Much 
was the trouble of these young people, which finally 
culminated in the queen giving a great royal festi- 
val, at which great care was exercised to get the 
king drunk and his signature attached to the order 
of persecution, which immediately became operative, 



52 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

and before the next morning thousands of the Cal- 
vinists were killed. During the night *Carson was 
caught assisting some of the unfortunates to safety, 
and the next morning was brought before the chief 
justice (the Despot) and was found guilty; and as 
he was shown paying a martyr's penalty upon the 
guillotine the epoch faded out. 

COLUMBUS BEFORE THE QUEEN OF SPAIN 

The ceaseless efforts of the Genius was next shown 
in Columbus (Carson), before the Queen of Spain 
(following the above reader) , who pledged her 
jewels that he might have ships to explore the West- 
ern ocean in an endeavor to reach the East, regard- 
less of the sneers of all of the wise men of the 
age. 

He was shown as he was discovering the new 
country, trading with the Indians, and so on, after 
which he set about to bring into reality his vis- 
ioned utopia, where Democracy could be realized 
in a grand splendor of simplicity, by returning to 
Spain for further supplies and more people, and 
finally ending as he was shown to return to Spain 
the second time in chains. 

In the meantime autocratic control was slowly but 
steadily weaving its chains around the newly es- 
tablished colonists; not only by Spain, but by all 
the kingdoms of Europe, who hastened to acquire 
dominion in the newly discovered land. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 53 

THE FATHER OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 

was the next announcement, and the personification 
of the Genius was suggested in George Washington. 
His early environment was covered briefly, show- 
ing numerous things that caused him to feel at odds 
with autocratic domination and his dreams of De- 
mocracy governing his beloved country, closing 
after some of his ideas of such a realm of content- 
ment had been brought out. 

Uncle Sam then appeared with a large book in 
his hands, and as he slowly opened it, showing the 
frontis-piece, he carried it nearer the camera — so 
near that only one page could be seen, upon which 
was printed in very heavy type : 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

After showing this for a few seconds the page 
slowly turned, showing: 

DECLARATION AND RESOLVES OF 
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

Then again, after showing a few seconds, this 
page turned, showing: 

DECLARATION OF THE CAUSES 
AND NECESSITY OF TAKING UP ARMS 



54 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

And after this page turned : 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

appeared, then the book faded out. 

A combined infantry and artillery battle was next 
shown — men fighting with old fashioned weapons. 
It was what would be considered a small skirmish 
today, and as it was fading away a reader appeared 
over it: 

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 

Uncle Sam then turned another page of the U. S. 
History, showing: 

TREATY WITH FRANCE 

which dissolved into another battle over which ap- 
peared : 

BATTLE OF YORKTOWN 

And as it came to a close, Lord Cornwallis (the 
Despot) surrendered the sword to Washington (Car- 
son), while Lafayette was standing near. 

"That act produced the hub of what I sincerely 
believe will be a real democracy in the not-very-dis- 
tant future/* whispered Uncle Howard, breaking a 
half -hour's silence, "and I hope that I can live to see, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 55 

the completion of the wheel." 

The signers of the Constitution were then shown 
affixing their signatures to the document, after 
which Uncle Sam turned another page of history, 
showing : 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Then came the scene of a woman being burned 
with hot irons and small torches — being tortured in 
numerous ways, and after the fire had been slowly 
drawn nearer and had entirely enveloped her writh- 
ing form, a reader appeared over the scene : 

STATISTICS SHOW THAT THE PRACTICE OF 
WITCHCRAFT BROUGHT DEATH TO OVER NINE 
MILLION INNOCENT WOMEN IN EUROPE 
ALONE 

"Our great evangelist says: 'When the Bible 
speaks there's no appeal — that settles all; there's 
not a single word in it that should not be obeyed 
and that is not the inspired word of God/ " said 
Uncle Howard, and went on : "I wonder what sort 
of explanation he has to offer for this law — the 
eighteenth verse of the twenty-second chapter of 
Exodus," as Uncle Sam turned another page of his- 
tory showing: 

WITCHCRAFT ABOLISHED 



56 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

CHATTEL SLAVERY ABOLISHED 

appeared, and the next embodiment of the Genius 
was shown in Abraham Lincoln, covering his early- 
environment and his vision of what truth and jus- 
tice could achieve. In one of these scenes a memor- 
able phrase of Lincoln's appeared, which brought 
forth a roar of applause. It read : 

"Inasmuch as most good things are produced by 
labor, it follows that all such good things ought to 
belong to those whose labor has produced them. 
But it has so happened in all the ages of the world 
that some have labored and others without labor 
have enjoyed a large portion of the fruits. This is 
wrong and should not continue. To secure to each 
laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly 
as possible, is a worthy object of any government." 

Slaves were shown under the lash and on the auc- 
tion block, the Despot among the bidders, and after 
several battles were suggested, General Lee was 
shown surrendering his sword to General Grant at 
the Appomattox Court House. 

"I was right on the spot when that historical 
event took place and this is a pretty fair represen- 
tation of it," whispered Uncle Howard, as the 
scene dissolved into the history with a page turn- 
ing, and showed: 

ALL MEN DECLARED FREE AND EQUAL 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 57 

and in a few seconds this page turned, showing : 

SENATE ORDERS INVESTIGATION 
OF HIGH COST OF LIVING 

and the scene faded out after this page was turned, 
showing : 

VICE INVESTIGATION HELD 

The scene opened with Ex-Ambassador Gerard 
and the Despot (impersonating the German Kaiser) 
sitting in the shade of some large palms in a magnifi- 
cent garden, deeply interested in conversation, 
which, after a short while faded out. 

Then Mr. Gerard was shown talking to a gen- 
tleman in a hotel lobby, who, Uncle Howard 
said, was personifying Karl Liebknecht, a German 
Socialist leader and former member of the German 
Reichstag, who, for many years, tried to overthrow 
the German military system and was severely pun- 
ished and imprisoned for writing a book on mili- 
tarism, which Uncle Howard had read. 

After this faded out a German regiment was 
shown standing at attention, listening to the read- 
ing of a message by a general and from the Kaiser, 
the latter part of which was shown, and was as fol- 
lows: 



58 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

for there is no law but my law — no will but mine; 
we are bound together, I and the Army by God's 
will. Rely upon us and trust my direction, to* which 
God in his wisdom has called me. 

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher pow- 
ers. For there is no power but of God; the powers 
that be are ordained of God. 

"Whosover therefore resisteth the power, re- 
sisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist 
shall receive to themselves damnation." 

The signature at the bottom of the message was 
so mussed up that none of us could make it out, but 
we were sure that it was the Kaiser's. 

After showing this message the scene of the gen- 
eral reading the last words, returned, and as he 
folded and placed it in his pocket the chaplain 
stepped forward, and as he raised his hands and as 
all the men, including the general, knelt, a reader 
appeared which showed the composition of his 
prayer : 

THOUGH THE WARRIOR'S BREAD BE SCANTY 
DO THOU WORK DAILY DEATH AND TENFOLD 
WOE UPON THE ENEMY. FORGIVE IN MERCI- 
FUL LONG-SUFFERING EACH BULLET AND 
EACH BLOW WHICH MISSES ITS MARK! LEAD 
US NOT INTO THE TEMPTATION OF LETTING 
OUR WRATH BE TOO TAME IN CARRYING OUT 
THY DIVINE JUDGMENT! DELIVER US AND 
OUR ALLY FROM THE INFERNAL ENEMY AND 
HIS SERVANTS ON EARTH. THINE IS THE 
KINGDOM, THE FATHERLAND: MAY WE, BY 
AID OF THY STEEL-CLAD HAND, ACHIEVE THE 
POWER AND THE GLORY. A- MEN. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 59 

As the army was shown to arise and march away 
in goose-step, and the scene was fading out, 
Uncle Howard said that he had read this prayer 
and many others of a similar tone, by various Ger- 
man preachers, in a volume: Hurrah and Halle- 
lujah, written by J. P. Bang, Professor of Theology 
at the University of Copenhagen. 

As the German soldiers were shown devastating 
and inflicting various brutalities in Belgium, Uncle 
Howard said that the Kaiser also offered as 
proof of his Divine right to crush Poland, Belgium, 
France, etc., many passages from the Bible, some of 
which are: 



"When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against 

it, then proclaim peace unto it. 
"And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, 

and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the 

people that is found therein shall be tributaries 

unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 
"And if it will make no peace with thee, but will 

make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it. 
"And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into 

thine hands, thou shall smite every male thereof 

with the edge of a sword: 
"But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, 

and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, 

shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the 

spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God 

hath given thee. 
"Thus shalt thou do unto the cities which are very 

far off from thee, which are not of the cities of 

these nations. 
"But of the cities of these people, which the LORD 

thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou 

shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. 

Deut. 20: 10 to 16. 



60 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"When thou goest forth to war against thine 
enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered 
them into thine hands and thou hast taken them 
captive, 

"And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, 
and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have 
her to be thy wife; 

"Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and 
she shall shave her head and pare her nails; 

"And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, 
then thou shalt let her go whither she will." 

Deut. 21: 10, 11, 12, 14. 

"The bible had spoken, and every law was obeyed, 
it had spoken through the Divine apostle — an- 
other great evangelist, and there was no appeal — 
that settled all," insisted Uncle Howard, and words 
are not within my finding that can describe the 
fright fulness which these ' 'Heaven-seeking, devil- 
fearing, and God-loving patriots", as he called them, 
exercised in carrying out the will of the great 
prophet. 

Among the brutalities shown were long lines of 
boys from ten to fifteen years old having their 
right hands cut off, to prevent them later becom- 
ing soldiers, and thrown into garbage barrels 
right before their own eyes. Men were bound with 
ropes and then thrown into the flames of their burn- 
ing homes, while others were hanged by the feet 
over slow fires and slowly tortured to death. 
Another scene showed a whole family being bayon- 
eted, including a beautiful girl of about eighteen, 
by these infuriated beasts — "the glory of the Fath- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 61 

erland who are to sit on the clouds all through eter- 
nity, and tickle the ears of their Heavenly Father 
with mellow strains from golden harps," suggested 
Uncle Howard, as Ethel looked at him in a puzzled 
mood. 

In most cases it seemed that the young girls were 
taken away by the soldiers, and later it was indi- 
cated that one hundred and fifty nurses were sent 
into Belgium from Germany to carry the babies of 
these young women back into the interior as soon 
as they were born, but owing to their abhorrence of 
the brutal fathers, many of these unwilling moth- 
ers dashed out the brains of their infants immedi- 
ately after birth, and were shown in line waiting 
for the surgeon's knife which unsexed them — the 
penalty imposed for their act, after which they 
were imported into Germany as slaves. 

A young man was shown where he had been tied 
to a tree and disemboweled; peasants were shot in 
the fields and their oxen slaughtered and prepared 
for food ; women and children were shown hovering 
about a tiny lamp in the corner of a roofless base- 
ment at night-time; German soldiers eating their 
rice, seemingly in great glee, while hundreds of 
corpses lay about them, and also German soldiers 
firing upon ambulances carrying the Red Cross sign ; 
but the most pitiful sight was of a little child per- 
haps two years old, picking up a dead kitten, after 
which it walked to its mother, who was lying dead, 



62 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

upon the doorstep of a destroyed home. The child 
was so weak it could hardly walk, and no doubt both 
the mother and kitten had died of starvation. As 
the little thing fell upon its mother, still grasping the 
dead kitten, it slowly opened her dress and began 
nursing. Handkerchiefs were seen and sobs heard 
all over the house, but these soon were replaced by 
shouts of vengeance when the scene shifted and the 
Kaiser was shown praying upon his knees. This 
scene was followed by a reader — one of his prayers — 
which brought more harsh words from many who 
had heretofore been semi-conscious of the situation. 
The reader was : 

OH ALMIGHTY GOD— CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS 
GOOD— WELL DO I KNOW THAT THOU AND 
THOU ALONE HAST GIVEN ME THE GROWN. AND 
THAT IT IS THE CAUSE OF JESUS IN MANKIND 
THAT WE FIGHT AFTER THY COMMAND; WE 
KNOW THAT THOU ART OUR MOST POWERFUL 
ALLY, AND THAT SINCE THE TIME OF THE 
GREAT ELECTOR AND GREAT KING, THOU 
HAST ALWAYE BEEN ON OUR SIDE. ON ME 
THY SPIRIT HAS DESCENDED— I AM THY 
WEAPON, THY SWORD AND THY VICE-REGENT. 
WOE TO THE DISOBEDIENT, DEATH TO THE 
COWARDS AND UNBELIEVERS. WE DO NOT 
KNOW WHAT THOU STILL HAST IN STORE FOR 
US, BUT WE HAVE SEEN IN THE PAST HOW 
THY HAND HAST SO VISIBLY PREVAILED— 
PUNISHED TREACHERY AND AWARDED HEROTC 
PERSISTENCE. FROM THIS WE HAVE GAINED 
FULL CONFIDENCE THAT THOU WILT BE WITH 
US IN THE FUTURE. A-MEN. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 63 

After the scene returned to the pillaging and the 
devastated districts, a placard in Belgian script was 
shown, posted upon a building at a prominent cor- 
ner, with many men gathered about reading it, after 
which the translation was shown in English : 

ALL MEN, NOT PRIESTS OR CLERGYMEN, OR 
WHO DO NOT BELONG TO THE CITY COUNCIL 
MUST BE AT THIS PLACE NEXT MONDAY 
MORNING AT HALF PAST FIVE, WITH ONE SUIT 
OF CLOTHES, ONE PAIR SHOES, ONE OVERCOAT, 
ONE HAT OR CAP, ONE EACH— KNIFE, FORK, 
AND SPOON, ONE DRINKING CUP AND ONE TIN 
PLATE. 

Then came the sorrowing morning, showing the 
heartless soldiers tearing babies from the arms of 
fathers, wives from their husbands, and mothers 
from their sons. As they marched down the cob- 
blestones between two lines of soldiers, women were 
seen running along the outside of the line endeav- 
oring to pass bundles of food and clothing to their 
dear ones, but at every attempt they were knocked 
down by the soldiers. 

It was then suggested that most of these men 
were unsexed before they were put to work for the 
German government. 

"In obedience to 2 Kings XX 18, which God has 
called the Kaiser's attention to", insisted Uncle How- 
ard. 

Women and children were shown, marching before 



64 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

German soldiers to prevent their being fired upon 
by the French and English ; children screaming and 
mothers crying, while the soldiers forced them along 
with their bayonets; Serbian children eating grape 
leaves and buds, and a Belgian peasant woman 
churning condensed cream which had been given to 
her by the American Relief Association, and because 
she could get no butter, threw it away while her chil- 
dren cried with hunger, as she thought there were 
"devils in it", and there was no priest near to re- 
move them. The scene faded out, showing the his- 
toric Rheims Cathedral in ruins, which the French 
peasants had believed to be under divine protection 
and immune from shell fire. 

The United States History then appeared as a 
page was turning which caused a good many to 
smile. It showed : 

VICE INVESTIGATION HELD 

A carload of potatoes being dumped into a river 
was next shown, that reminded Uncle Howard of 
an incident which he related and which interested 
us very much. He said: "Last Fall I met a gen- 
tleman, an attorney for a Chicago wholesale gro- 
cery house, on the train, who became quite angry 
when I showed him an editorial in the Illinois State 
Register (Springfield) headlined: 

HOW PRICES ARE KEPT UP 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 65 

explaining that four cars of potatoes had lately been 
dumped into the Illinois River at Peoria. He said 
that it wasn't true, for he was appointed by the Gov- 
ernment to investigate the matter and found it base- 
less, but when I reminded him that men, for various 
reasons, are often successful in finding conclusive 
evidence with but little effort, and asked him if most 
of his report wasn't made out before he went to 
Peoria, he refused to answer. And this reminds me 
of something else I must tell you," he continued, as 
several like scenes were shown — grapes being 
dumped into Frisco Bay, apples, peaches, pears, and 
oranges being dumped from cars on the Western 
plains, baled cotton being burned, etc. — "A short 
while after this meeting, I was in a barber shop at 
344 North Clark street (Chicago) and heard an 
official of another wholesale grocery house say that 
his firm was selling pork at $36.50 that only cost 
them $25.60, and when the barber, who was shaving 
him, remarked that that was certainly a good profit, 
he answered : 'What's the difference so long as the 
Government is paying the bills', and today this same 
firm maintains that it is very patriotic." 

Several freight cars upon the sides of which 
were marked : 

HOLD— SPUDS 



66 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

were now being shown with their cargoes being 
dumped upon a large pile of various rotten food- 
stuffs. 

Owen said that he was in Chicago last November 
and had seen this very pile; that it was at West 
Chicago, and was from ten to fifty feet high and two 
hundred yards long. After shifting to a freight 
yard wherein many cars were thus marked, the scene 
faded out. 

The scene opened in front of a large business 
office on a very busy street. Upon the large plate 
glass appeared: 

THE J. C. BLACKMAN PACKING COMPANY 
CITY OFFICES 

In the corner of the window was a large card upon 
which was printed: expert accountant wanted 

Presently Carson came along and saw the card. 
He looked quite sickly and seemed to be very down- 
hearted, but when he saw the card he straightened 
up as much as possible and entered the door, adjust- 
ing his necktie. 

The scene shifted to the interior as he stepped in- 
side, removing his hat, and looking as if he were 
quite afraid. He walked to a desk upon which was 
an information sign, and stated his wants to the 
young lady, who, after delivering the message, beck- 
oned Carson into a private office. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 67 

The scene shifted to the interior of this office with 
a shallow looking young man about twenty-two years 
old, with thumbs in vest sleeves and smoking a ciga- 
rette, sitting behind a desk upon which his name: 
Mr. J. C. Blackman, Jr., was noticed, as Carson en- 
tered. 

"He looks as if he thinks he is about as important 
as a police judge when a criminal faces him", inter- 
jected Uncle Howard, as Carson was being ques- 
tioned. 

When the young man had apparently satisfied 
himself that Carson would be competent to fill the 
position, he entered an adjoining room, upon the 
door of which was printed: J. C. blackman, SR., 
private, and after a few seconds, during which 
time Carson was nervously wrapping his cap about 
his hands, he opened the door and invited Carson 
inside. As Carson arose and started toward the 
door, the scene shifted, showing him entering the 
senior's office. A man of about fifty-five, with heavy 
eye-brows, black mustache, and a very unpleasant 
and cross look, was seated at his desk. Shortly 
after he directed Carson to be seated, he asked him 
where he had been working (which we could under- 
stand from the motions of his mouth) , and when 
Carson answered, he reached for the telephone and 
called a number, which we understood was for the 
head of the firm, to find their reason for discharging 
him. He continued talking to Carson while wait- 



68 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ing for the other party to answer, asking him numer- 
ous questions, as Carson grew more nervous, and 
it was not long until we quite well understood what 
the nervousness was all about, for as soon as his 
first question over the phone was answered, he 
slammed the receiver into the hook and as he turned 
to Carson, looking as mad as a biting sow, a reader 
appeared : 

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TAKE UP A BUSY 
MAN'S TIME IN THIS WAY FOR— I'LL BET YOU 
HAVE BEEN TOLD DOZENS OF TIMES THAT NO 
REPUTABLE BUSINESS FIRM WILL EMPLOY A 
MAN WITH THE CON. GET OUT OF HERE YOU 
SKUNK! 

Carson arose and left the room. As he passed 
through young Blackman's room he looked as if he 
was expecting to get an ink bottle at the back of the 
head, while the young alek looked daggers at him. 

Carson was then shown emerging from the build- 
ing, after which he walked some distance away and 
stopped to study for a moment. 

The scene shifted back for a few seconds to where 
the long lines of freight cars were shown in the 
freight yards. By this we understood that he was 
thinking about all this waste food, that he was so 
much in need of and which he could not get. 

Soon a very large and luxurious car rolled up in 
front of the building, then drove away after young 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 69 

Blackman had entered, while Carson, who was 
standing some distance away with one foot on a 
garbage box and his elbow on his knee, watched very 
closely. The scene faded away as the car disap- 
peared. 

The next scene was of a luxurious mansion sur- 
rounded by a high stone wall and with high steel 
gates, behind which were several cannon, while the 
muzzles of several machine guns extended from 
the coping. Presently young Blackman's car ap- 
peared and as he emerged, the lackey came running 
from the house and unlocked the gate. He was 
wearing knee-pants and his hair was bobbed just 
above the shoulders; he had large silver buckles on 
his slippers, and around the bottom of his pant legs 
were wide ribbons with large bows on the outside, 
and on these were large silver buckles, also. As he 
opened the gate he made a polite bow to the young 
man, who hurried into the house while the lackey 
waited at the gate, and the car stood at the curb- 
stone. 

After a short while the lackey suddenly turned as 
if he had heard a noise in the direcion from which 
the young man had come, and in a second another 
large car drove up behind the first one, from which 
the elder Blackman emerged, who, after speaking a 
few words to his chauffeur, proceeded toward the 
gate as the car drove away. The lackey greeted him 
with a polite bow which he seemingly did not see. 



70 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Just as the father stepped inside of the gate, the 
young man came out of the house in a great hurry, 
and when the father tried to halt him he smiled 
broadly and waved his cane high in the air, and 
while instructing his chauffeur he lighted a ciga- 
rette; then adjusted his silk hat as he entered the 
car, and the scene faded out as the car rolled away 
with him looking back at his father with a sarcastic 
smile, which seemed to suggest: "You poor old fo- 
gie." 

The next scene showed Carson breaking a seal on 
a car in the yards previously shown. It was a C. & 
N. W. car, number 896698, upon which was a HOLD 
card. After entering the car he lighted a candle 
which he allowed to drip upon the batting of the car 
door, then set the candle in the hot tallow to hold it 
securely, after which he filled his sack with the best 
potatoes he could find. We could see that the most 
of them were quite rotten, therefore, it was necessary 
for him to handle quite a few before he got what he 
could carry, which was not very many, as he was 
too weak. He then put out the candle and climbed 
out and the scene faded out as he closed the door and 
walked away. 

The interior of an elaborately decorated dining 
room with many gay women and men dining and 
drinking was next shown. Just in front of the stage, 
upon which a dozen near-nude girls were dancing, 
sat Blackman at a table with three attractive and 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 71 

thinly-clad women, all smoking cigarettes and drink- 
ing. Blackman was so drunk that he could hardly 
sit up, yet he was able to throw money at the dan- 
cers, who bowed, smiled, and threw kisses at him as 
they gathered it up. 

Presently another most fascinating dancer ap- 
peared upon the stage, whose only wearing apparel 
was a small American flag wrapped around her. 
Needless to say, that she made a great hit as she 
glided about so charmingly upon her bare toes, wav- 
ing her arms in graceful curves ; and as the enthusi- 
astic and "patriotic" diners arose to sing the "Star- 
Spangled Banner," Blackman failed to get properly 
balanced, and fell — crashing two tables and creating 
a general turmoil. The scene faded out as he was 
being carried away. 

"It is a shame that we haven't got some authori- 
ties with backbone enough to put a stop to such prac- 
tices — using the flag to advertise business in such a 
way as that," said Uncle Howard. "It's salute a 
flag here and stand up for the National air there, 
everywhere you go — at every cheap vaudeville or any 
other kind of a show ; it is the same old story — patri- 
otism! patriotism! get the money, even our great 
evangelist raises the flag every time he operates his 
sawdust trail. Advertisements in newspapers so- 
licit men to 'cash in* upon the wave of patriotic 
feeling that is sweeping the country by selling 
badges and flags at 100 per cent profit, and if you 



72 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

venture upon the street with no decorations on your 
lapel you are called a 'slacker'. I saw in the papers 
last Fall where the Federal Trade Commission had 
charged twenty of the leading flag manufacturers 
with making exorbitant profits out of American pa- 
triotism by concerted illegal action to raise flag 
prices. This investigation showed in some cases 300 
per cent profit was made." 

The interior of a near-barren room with a very 
feeble old lady sitting at a table, reading a newspa- 
per which looked as if she had taken it from a gar- 
bage can, was now being shown. After a short 
while the door opened and Carson entered with his 
sack of potatoes and set them at her feet, while she 
acted as if she were so pleased that she knew not 
how to express her joy. She kissed him and patted 
him on the back, and as he took several from the bag 
and proceeded to wash them and trim out the rotten 
parts — preparing them to cook — she helped herself 
to one, not even taking time to have it washed. 

Suddenly the door flew open and half a dozen 
husky policemen entered the room with a ferocious 
rush and sprang upon Carson, knocking the old lady 
into the corner as if she were no more than a soap 
box. It reminded me of a bunch of fox-hounds 
when they get a fox cornered — every dog tries to 
get the biggest chunk of meat. However, Carson 
made no resistance and as they dragged him through 
the door the scene shifted, and showed them throw- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 73 

ing him into a large, covered automobile with a door 
in the back end and faded out after they had all 
climbed in and were driven away, opening imme- 
diately showing him in jail with seven or eight po- 
licemen slapping him and seemingly every one ask- 
ing him questions as if they all expected answers at 
the same time. Not only did they slap him but they 
drenched him with water, shot a revolver close in 
front of his eyes, pulled his hair, flashed a strong 
electric lamp in his face and hit him in the face with 
their fists ; and as the scene faded out he seemed to 
be hardly able to sit up. 

"We hear eloquent ministers preaching of the 
agony of Jesus during his crucifixion," said Uncle 
Howard, "but never is there a denunciation from the 
pulpit of the agony which thousands of both inno- 
cent and guilty men are forced to endure — this third 
degree, within the walls of our police stations. In- 
stead, they will cast their ballots for a system which 
tolerates such activities and crown with laurels the 
'great detectives' who inflict these brutalities." 

The scene opened at the West Chicago food dump, 
showing this same car — C. & N. W. 896698 — being 
unloaded, which, after a few seconds dissolved into 
the U. S. History with a page turning, showing : 

CONGRESS ORDERS HIGH COST 
OF LIVING INVESTIGATED 



74 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

then faded out, as everybody enjoyed a laugh. 

The interior of a school was next shown, with 
many small children gathered about a table. Some 
were buying food and eating, while others stood 
near and looked on very wistfully, as they were 
forced to do without food because they had no 
money, yet they looked as if they could not under- 
stand just why this was so — why they should starve 
while others ate, and yet plenty of food remained in 
their view after those with money had eaten all 
they wished. 

The scene shifted, showing the camera to be trav- 
eling through streets where hundreds of wagons 
loaded with various kinds of foods were winding 
about. Close views of uncovered wagons hauling 
beef, pork, and mutton, interiors of chicken picking 
rooms, game and poultry packing plants and whole- 
sale markets where filth abounded on every side, 
were shown ; women and children picking up various 
vegetables and fruits from under the horses where 
they had fallen; digging into garbage barrels from 
which they picked the good from half rotten fruits 
and vegetables ; but saddest of all, some were seen to 
be picking up dead chickens which had died in the 
coops, and were carrying them home to feast upon. 

''These were taken on South Water and West Ran- 
dolph streets, Chicago, and can be seen there any 
day," whispered Owen. "I have seen them many 
times and although it is hard to believe, it is every 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 75 

bit true." 

For the first time in this epoch Nell was shown in 
the next scene, in a poorly furnished room, with no 
window curtains and with the lower sash covered by 
a newspaper. She was sitting at the table, which 
was a rickety old thing, eating her breakfast of 
bread soaked in coffee. On the corner of the table 
was a little gas stove upon which was a sad iron, and 
on top of the iron she had her coffee pot. She poured 
more coffee from the pot into her cup, the handle of 
which was broken off, then set the pot on the win- 
dow sill, and after cutting and eating another slice 
of bread and drinking her last cup of coffee, she 
arose and took her waist from a line which she had 
stretched across the room. She was dressed ready 
for work with the exception of having on her waist, 
which evidently she had washed before retiring the 
night before. Her hat was hanging upon a nail on 
the back of the door. With waist in hand she walked 
to the dresser and was looking very despairingly into 
the spotted old mirror when a reader appeared : 

'SIX DOLLARS A WEEK AND YOU MUST WEAR 
SILK WAISTS AND SILK HOSE!"— CAN I HOLD 
UP UNTIL I CAN FIND SOME MAN WHO WILL 
MARRY ME, OR WILL I BE FORCED DOWN AS 
OVER 200,000 OTHER POOR GIRLS ARE IN THIS 
COUNTRY EVERY YEAR? 

As this disappeared she was shaking her head and 



76 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

looking most pitifully and as if saying to herself: 
"I'm afraid." Then suddenly she seemed to remember 
that she must not waste time, and upon Tooking at 
her alarm clock and seeing that it was seven o'clock, 
hurriedly took the pillow-slip from her pillow, 
spread it over her newspaper-table-cloth and was 
ironing her waist as the scene faded out. 

The U. S. History appeared again with page 
turning and: 

VICE INVESTIGATION HELD 

was shown on the opposite page which brought 
hisses from many, and a quiver to Uncle Howard's 
lips, but he remained silent. The audience quieted 
as another page showed: 

FEDERAL CHILD LABOR ACT 

(children's sweatshops abolished) 

A young man washing his underclothes, socks and 
handkerchiefs in a bath tub, and in a very dingy 
bath room was next shown, and then shifted to his 
room, showing him hanging his socks and under- 
clothes on a line, after which he walked to his 
dresser with several handkerchiefs in his hand and 
spread one over the mirror. They seemed to stick 
as if they had paste on them. There was no window 
in the room and his only light was a gas jet. His bed 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 77 

was a little cot, there was no carpet on the floor, his 
only chair was an orange box and the mirror on his 
dresser was held up by a string which was passed 
in front of it and fastened to a nail in the wall at 
each end. Just as he had the first handkerchief 
about smoothed down he stopped and looked at him- 
self in the glass for a moment when a reader ap- 
peared : 

HOW CAN I SAVE ENOUGH ON $10.00 
PER WEEK TO EVER HAVE A HOME 
FOR A WIFE AND KIDDIES? 

and after returning and showing him as he contin- 
ued his work the scene faded out. 

The exterior of a busy saloon, with numerous 
working men entering and leaving, was next shown. 
All patrons looked as if they had been working hard 
and were very tired. After a few seconds a very 
tall man appeared, with a dinner pail on his arm, 
and stopped in front of the door, seemingly debating 
with himself as to whether or not he should go in, 
finally deciding that he would, and as he entered the 
door, the scene shifted to the interior, showing him 
entering. 

Hanging from the ceiling and just above the big 
sideboard they had all the glasses on and which was 
behind the serving counter, was a large sign upon 
which was printed : 



78 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

TODAY IS PAY DAY AND TOMORROW IS 
SUNDAY— ENJOY YOURSELVES SUNDAY 

He ordered a drink and when the waiter brought 
him a glass of beer he presented a bill, and while he 
was waiting for his change two friends came in who 
greeted him warmly, and as they were shaking 
hands the scene shifted to a home wherein three lit- 
tle children were standing at a window as if pa- 
tiently waiting for some one to come, each trying to 
get in front of the other and all seemingly playful 
and happy, while the mother was sitting at a table 
apparently in a deep study. Three or four old chairs, 
several boxes, two tables made from boxes and a lit- 
tle old worn out cook stove with one leg broken off, 
which was supplemented with bricks, comprised the 
furniture. This was shown but a few seconds, then 
it shifted back, showing this man pleading with both 
his friends to allow him to go home; but when he 
saw that they were going to get angry at him, he, 
not wishing to lose friends, consented to take an- 
other drink, and we could tell from their actions that 
he had asked for beer but they would allow him to 
take nothing but whiskey. After taking this drink 
he again tried to get away, but the second friend 
gave him to understand that his money was just as 
good as the first one's and by the time his turn to 
treat had come, he was feeling very gay, and it was 
shown that in a very short while he was near drunk 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 79 

and most of his money was gone. 

Suddenly he stopped and studied for a second, 
then turned and ran from the bunch, which had 
grown to a dozen or more by this time, all of whom 
hissed and jeered as he went out. 

He was then shown, entering his home with the 
week's food supply which he had bought with what 
money he had left, which was: a loaf of bread, a 
dozen wieners, a pint bottle of milk and a half peck 
of potatoes. The children were jolly, as they were 
too young to realize, but the wife was weeping bit- 
terly as the secene faded out. 

This was followed by several thrilling and spec- 
tacular scenes, representing the sinking of the Lusi- 
tania, with countless victims struggling helplessly 
in the water, and several other ships going down in 
like manner. In one instance a submarine fired into 
a life-boat and then stood by while its crew laughed 
at the victims who were fighting for their lives in 
the water. Zeppelin raids were shown, after which 
a funeral procession was shown, suggesting that 
there were about thirty children in the one funeral 
— all victims of one air raid, after which the scene 
dissolved into the President still reading. It seemed 
that he was now reading from the same book he had 
at the beginning of the production. The page was 
shown : 



80 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 



THE DARK AGES 261 

and HE is the product of gross ignorance: HIS 
desires are but personal gratifications. HE seeks 
to tear down all that is before HIM for self-gain; 
appeals to HIM that the purpose of life is living, 
and that all anyone requires during life is: 
substantial food, comfortable shelter, and re- 
respectable clothing — that happiness is to be 
had only by imposing comforts upon others — our 
relatives, our friends, our neighbors — whether they 
are near or far — in the Arctic cold or the Torrid 
heat, in blackest Africa or antique Asia, fall upon 
deaf ears. HE is in Europe and HE is in America 
— HE is everywhere, and HIS inordinate ambition 
must be strangled if the race is to go forward; his 
armies must vanish, HIS walled mansions must be 
placed in the open, HIS boundary lines must be 
dissolved, and HIS superstition must be cast into 
limbo of faded delusions — HE must be driven from 
HIS throne never to return. Then and then only 
will the World be made safe for Democracy; and 
it is the duty of every man who loves life with all 
its possible joys, to join in this invasion; shake the 
shackles that are binding him — the chains of Auto- 
cracy that have bound man, and impeded his for- 
ward walk throughout all these Dark Ages, and 
filled his life with anguish and distress. 

The page then slowly turned and the next one 
was shown, which was a new chapter: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 81 

MALNUTRITION 

There are no biological reasons why man should 
live less than one hundred twenty years in per- 
fect health and happiness, but there are many 
physical reasons why he lives but forty-three in 
anguish and discontent. 

Many a little heart, pumping impoverished blood 
to hungry tissues, feeding starved nerves with a 
polluted stream, nourishing a tired and wearied 
brain with debased foods, eause in a marked de- 
gree bad, cranky, wreckless, hateful and nervous 
children, and every man who has been made aware 
of this great and destructive system which Autoc- 
racy has enthroned — this program which food man- 
ufacturers have designed that fosters men to "eat 
with their eyes' 1 , in glory rather than in wisdom — 
"to dig their graves with their teeth", and last but 
not least, impair their intellectuality, and who re- 
fused to make war against it, is not only a coward 
but has blood on his hands — is a soldier in Autoc- 
racy's army. He is upholding a system that is in- 
viting 400,000 little white caskets into the homes 
of Americans (other countries as well) annually, 
and bearing away our dear ones, and all for the 
personal profit of a privileged few! 

(262) 



A very peculiar arrangement was next shown 
which suggested the process of making flour from 
natural wheat, with the white flour running into a 
packer, upon which was painted in large letters: 
'The meat of the wheat," and at the packer a man 
was placing the flour in bags. From the other side 



82 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

of the mill was running another stream over which 
appeared : 



RESIDUE 

It seemed that this was running directly into a 
large trough from which a number of extra fine 
cattle and hogs were eating. 

It was then illustrated that this white flour was 
made into various foods which was fed to children, 
and a number of puny and sickly looking children 
appeared. Some were eating crackers, some eating 
cookies, and others eating angel-food cake, white 
biscuits, pie, cup-cakes, dough-nuts, white bread, etc. 

The interior of a wealthy home was shown just 
as three very badly spoiled children were sitting up 
to the breakfast table, still dressed in their night 
clothes. The maid coaxed them all to eat oat-meal, 
but they refused, and each insisted upon having just 
what it wanted. The first wanted rice, and it seemed 
that she was used to their whims and had many 
things prepared. Alice suggested that there was 
surely lack of conservation in that home, as the maid 
dished out the rice and a reader was faded over the 
scene : 

POLISHED RICE 
As she served it the next one ordered pan-cakes, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 83 

over which was faded, as she was pouring the dough 
into a griddle: 

REFINED BUCKWHEAT FLOUR 

and as she was dishing out the last one's order : 

DEMINERALIZED AND DEGERMINATED CORN- 
GRISTS THAT HAVE BEEN ROLLED AND 
TOASTED, THEN SEALED IN "SANITARY" PACK- 
AGES 

appeared, after which she proceeded to pour milk 
over the rice and flakes as another reader appeared : 

MILK FROM TUBERCULAR COWS, RENDERED 
SO BY BEING FED DEMINERALIZED AND 
STIMULATING, HIGH PROTEIN GLUTEN MEAL, 
BREWERS GRAINS, COTTON SEED MEAL, ETC. 

"That is not true," snapped Owen very quickly. 
"All of the college professors say that protein is the 
most important of all the food elements, and the 
more you feed the better. I once heard Prof. D. 0. 
Barto, Superintendent of Poultry Husbandry at the 
University of Illinois say it is impossible to feed a 
hen enough protein, and everybody knows that a 
cow must have plenty of protein if she is to give a 
maximum amount of milk." 

"Did you ever ask yourself if it is possible that 
there are some things in the world that our uni- 



84 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

versity professors do not know all about?" asked 
Uncle Howard. 

"Demineralized food-stuffs foster disease without 
a doubt, but to educate people that disease, in the 
presence of natural foods is like chaff before the 
wind, would be financial suicide for our food trusts ; 
so they continue to pander our false tastes and lead 
us to believe that Nature is incompetent and puts in- 
jurious elements in our foods that they so kindly 
remove. Alfred W. McCann, in his book "starv- 
ing America", writes: 'Chemists and pathologists 
are to be found who are willing to go on record with 
some such statements as these : 

" 'Of the metabolism of foods, of chemical change, 
of the exact action of enzymes and bacteria, we are 
profoundly ignorant; therefore, we should not give 
much consideration to the mineral content of our 
dieV 

" 'We get so many minerals in so many articles 
of food that we can afford to remove most of them, 
from our diet, and, anyhow, so little is known about 
the conduct of these minerals when ingested with 
food that the subject is at least not important 
enough to occasion grave alarm." 

"Then Mr. McCann asks: 'What chemist's sig- 
nature will open up the little graves and deliver 
back to the fond and empty arms of grieving par- 
ents, the millions of children that have died in this 
country during past years?' 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 85 

"Every proclaimed dietitian I ever talked with 
has the same old story: protein, protein; it is all 
they know, and they remind you that they all agree 
that protein is the most important of all food ele- 
ments. Why shouldn't they all agree when they've 
all learned it from the same book and they possess 
no personal thinking capacity? Then this 'sanitary' 
noise sure makes me tired too ; they even have 'sani- 
tary,' 'hygienic,' and 'antiseptic' barber shops 
now." 

The maid placed some sugar over the flakes and 
rice, over which was faded : 

DECALCIFIED SUGAR 

"Well, I am sure that I don't want to eat any 
brown sugar," Ethel slurred. "Just a short while 
ago, Food Administrator Wheeler said that his fam- 
ily had been forced to eat it for a short time on ac- 
count of a shortage in sugar, and if it is fit to eat and 
better than the white sugar, I am sure he wouldn't 
have said that." 

A reader then appeared, while the maid was pour- 
ing syrup over the pancakes: 

SYRUP— TREATED BY SAME PROCESS EMPLOY- 
ED IN BLEACHING STRAW HATS 

and just as the scene started to fade away an el- 
derly gentleman appeared in the corner of the pic- 



86 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ture, shaking his head and wringing his hands as 
if very much in despair. 

"Why don't all of our authorities know and do 
better than they do," answered Uncle Howard. 
"That is Doctor Wiley, a man who has battled for 
over thirty-five years, for the physical betterment 
of the race, and who has suffered defeat several 
times at the hands of our greedy food trusts, but 
who will never surrender. Give him his way and 
the infant death rate in America will decline very 
rapidly, and the average adult life will lengthen. 
No ribbon dyed candies nor caffeine-drugged Coca 
Cola would be sold, and meat would no longer be 
flavored and embalmed with pyroligenous acid and 
sulphide of soda. You should read his booklet: 
'Your Child and the Soda Fountain/ 

"Thrift, today, is mentioned only in terms of 
dollars and cents. He would encourage the teach- 
ing of physical thrift in the schools and provide an 
economic program whereby the multitudes would 
not be required to destroy health in pursuit of the 
necessities of life. Go to any health resort and ask 
those present who are searching for the Fountain 
of Youth about their entire education and they will 
tell you that it was all about how to make money. 

"Well, the foods we have at our house are pure, 
and I know it, for our grocer is the finest man you 
ever saw and he would not handle anything but the 
most popular brands," snapped Ethel, which amused 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 87 

Uncle Howard very much, and when he told her 
that if she would take the time to get the November, 
1916, issue of McClure's Magazine, and read the ar- 
ticle on: 'Getting Allyn/ by George K. Turner — of 
how the manufacturers of food-stuffs who used 
alum, copper, formaldehyde, sulphurous acid, boric 
acid, benzoic acid, formic acid, hydrofluoric acid, or 
salicylic acid, or any of their salts; coal tar dyes 
or poisonous vegetable colors, those who contami- 
nated their foods with inert fillers and those who 
used dishonest labels with extravagant and obscure 
statements, exercised every conceivable means to dis- 
credit the work of a Normal professor in chemistry, 
several years ago at Westfield, Mass., he believed 
she would acknowledge that there were a few things 
going on in the world that she did not know all 
about, she seemed quite willing to discontinue the 
argument. 

Four lines of white hearses had been shown 
during their little setto, driving down a street, and 
explained by a reader: 

DRIVING FOUR ABREAST THE ANNUAL PRO- 
CESSION WOULD EXTEND FROM CHICAGO TO 
NEW YORK 

and the camera was now traveling through a vast 
cemetery, which was explained after a short while 
with another reader that caused a good many to 
straighten up in their seats and sigh. It read ; 



88 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

AND THUS COVERING 500 ACRES OF LAND 
WITH LITTLE MOUNDS AND FRUITLESS TEARS 
EACH YEAR 

and the same scene continued Uncle Howard went 
on: 

"In one of his recent speeches, President Wil- 
son said: 'I have found that the particular thing 
you have to surrender to is facts/ To those who 
always take authority for truth, instead of truth 
for authority, a fact does not become a fact until 
affirmed by an authority. It therefore became a 
fact upon the twenty-ninth of last January that the 
United States has been heretofore wasting the lives 
of babies. Upon that date, Miss Julia Lathrop, head 
of the children's bureau of the Department of Labor, 
announced that the Government was going to start 
a great child welfare drive upon the sixth of April. 
She stated that three hundred thousand children 
under five years of age had died last year, and that 
most of the fifteen thousand mothers who died, had 
died needlessly. Instead of starting as soon as they 
found this out, these authorities put it off sixty- 
seven days, and figuring the same ratio, allowed 
55,069 children and 2753 mothers to die without this 
special effort in order to make the 'Children's Year* 
commence upon the anniversary of America's dec- 
laration of war; then upon the historic sixth, the 
Washington authorities announced that the work 
was to begin upon that date, and that it was ex- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 89 

pected that one hundred thousand children would be 
saved in the year. I suppose that is another new 
brand of patriotism. 

"What happens when a life is wiped out by mal- 
nutrition, from starvation, from mis-diagnosis of a 
doctor, etc.? The answer is always the same. 
There's always a long-faced and pious preacher 
ready to say a lot of soothing things about them 
being 'safe in the arms of Jesus/ and then the next 
day the newspapers will have a mess of stuff about 
it being the Divine Will of Almighty God to call from 
our midst 'one of the tenderest flowers that ever 
bloomed — our fond and loving dear one — we could 
not see him at the last or hold his dying head, be- 
fore we knew an angel came and took him home to 
sleep in Christ/ or some other such nonsense, even 
if the child had swallowed strychnine. Any one who 
sanctions such explanations is certainly an optimist. 
We will have Government Ownership of all public 
utilities some day; all food vending and manufac- 
turing, hospitals and doctors working for the bet- 
terment of public health and in the employ of the 
Government, rather than fat purses at the expense 
of the race — the cause of sickness and early deaths 
will have been removed, instead of a continued at- 
tack upon the effects/' 

A vast crowd of enthusiastic people listening to 
a speaker, was now before us, from whose conduct 
we could see that every word was striking the heart 



90 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

of every listener, and as the camera drew nearer 
we saw that it was Karl Liebknecht. After a short 
while a reader appeared, which brought applause 
and hisses, cheers and moans, all at the same time 
from all over the house, and although the speaker's 
name was not mentioned, it seemed that every one 
knew who he was. The reader was: 



WE, THE WORKING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY 
HAVE THREE CARDINAL RIGHTS: THE RIGHT 
TO BE SOLDIERS, TO PAY TAXES, AND TO KEEP 
OUR TONGUES BETWEEN OUR TEETH. POV- 
ERTY AND MISERY, NEED AND STARVATION 
ARE RULING THE CONTINENT, WHOSE BLOOD 
THE VAMPIRE OF IMPERIALISM IS SUCKING, 
RESEMBLE VAST CEMETERIES. 

THIS WAR IS AN IMPERIALIST'S WAR FOR 
DOMINATION OF WORLD MARKETS, AND FOR 
THE BENEFIT OF BANKERS AND MANUFACT- 
URERS. IT IS ALSO A WAR TENDING TO DE- 
STROY THE GROWING LABOR MOVEMENT, IT 
IS NOT A WAR OF DEFENSE. THOSE WHO 
PROFIT FROM THE WAR DESIRE WAR WITH 
AMERICA. TOMORROW, PERHAPS, THEY MAY 
ORDER US TO AIM WEAPONS AGAINST NEW 
GROUPS OF OUR BROTHERS— AGAINST OUR 
FELLOW WORKERS IN AMERICA. CONSIDER 
WELL THE FACT: AS LONG AS THE COMMON 
PEOPLE DO NOT RISE AND ENFORCE THEIR 
OWN WILL, THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PEO- 
PLE WILL CONTINUE. LET THOUSANDS OF 
VOICES SHOUT: "DOWN WITH THE SHAME- 
LESS EXTERMINATION OF NATIONS! DOWN 
WITH THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 91 

THESE GRIMES! DOWN WITH MILITARISM 
FOREVER! 

THE CRY OF "DOWN WITH THE WAR" IS 
MEANT TO GIVE VOICE TO THE FACT THAT I 
THOROUGHLY CONDEMN AND OPPOSE THE 
PRESENT WAR BECAUSE OF ITS HISTORICAL 
NATURE: BECAUSE OF ITS GENERAL SOCIAL 
CAUSES : THE PARTICULAR WAY IN WHICH IT 
WAS BROUGHT ABOUT: THE MANNER IN 
WHICH IT IS CONDUCTED AND THE OBJECT 
FOPt WHICH IT IS FOUGHT. I OPPOSE IT ALSO 
IN BELIEF THAT IT IS THE DUTY OF EVERY 
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PROLETARIAT TO 
TAKE PART IN THE INTERNATIONAL CLASS 
STRUGGLE FOR THE PURPOSE OF PUTTING 
AN END THERETO. 

AS A COCIALIST, I AM A THOROUGH-GOING OP- 
PONENT OF THE EXISTING MILITARY SYS- 
TEM AS WELL AS OF THIS WAR. I HAVE 
ALWAYS SUPPORTED WITH ALL MY POWER 
THE BATTLE AGAINST MILITARISM. ITS 
OVERTHROW IS A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT 
TASK FOR THE WORKING CLASS OF ALL 
COUNTRIES TO PERFORM: IN FACT, IT IS A 
MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH TO THEM. 

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ITS ALLY, THIS 
COUNTRY PLOTTED TO BRING ABOUT THIS 
WAR AND THUS BURDEN ITSELF WITH THE 
PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS IMMED- 
IATE OUTBREAK. IT BEGAN THE WAR BY 
MISLEADING THE MASSES OF PEOPLE AND IT 
CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN WAR SENTIMENT 
AMONG THE PEOPLE BY THE USE OF REPRE- 
HENSIBLE METHODS. 



92 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

And as the scene was continued several policement 
worked their way to the platform and arrested him ; 
while the howling mob seemed to be in such a state 
of frenzy that only a leader was needed to cause 
them to crush the police. He was placed in an auto- 
mobile and the scene faded out as it was driving 
away. 

"The most courageous man in all Germany," said 
Owen, as Liebknecht was shown in court, facing a 
charge of treason. 

After a short while he jumped to his feet in pro- 
test to a secret trial and a reader appeared: 

IT IS COWARDICE ON YOUR PART, GENTLE- 
MEN. YES, I REPEAT, THAT YOU ARE 
COWARDS IF YOU CLOSE THOSE DOORS. YOU 
SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. 

However, his voice was unheard, and after the 
trial had progressed for a short while, the attorney 
general walked over to him, and it seemed, was urg- 
ing him to plead guilty, and promising him clem- 
ency, but Leibknecht quickly jumped to his feet, and, 
popping his fist, defied the courts in a most courage- 
ous and determined way, and when the reader ap- 
peared, explaining his assertions, a cheer went up 
from every voice in the house. Even Ethel clapped 
her hands and shouted "good!" The reader was: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 93 

I TAKE ENTIRE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EVERY 
WORD I HAVE SAID OR WRITTEN. THE AIM 
OF MY LIFE IS THE OVERTHROW OF MON- 
ARCHY, AS WELL AS THE EMANCIPATION OF 
THE EXPLOITED WORKING-CLASS FROM POLI- 
TICAL AND ECONOMIC BONDAGE. AS MY 
FATHER, WHO APPEARED BEFORE THIS COURT 
EXACTLY THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TO DE- 
FEND HIMSELF AGAINST THE CHARGE OF 
TREASON, WAS ULTIMATELY PRONOUNCED 
VICTOR, SO I BELIEVE THE DAY NOT FAR DIS- 
THAT WHEN THE PRINCIPLE WHICH I REP- 
RESENT WILL BE RECOGNIZED AS PATRIOTIC, 
AS HONORABLE, AS TRUE. 

This brought the trial hurriedly to a close, and 
again hisses and shouts of revenge came from every 
side when a reader appeared, revealing the judged 
sentence after both he and Liebknecht had arisen. 

YOUR AIM IS TO DESTROY OUR ARMY WHICH 
IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF OUR NATION'S CON- 
STITUTION. THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS 
MORALE CAN BE BROUGHT ABOUT ONLY BY 
FORCIBLE MEANS, AND THE USE OF SUCH 
MEANS WOULD BE THE FIRST STEP IN THE 
DESTRUCTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. THERE- 
FORE, THIS 'COURT IMPOSES A SENTENCE OF 
FORTY-NINE MONTHS SERVITUDE IN MILITARY 
PRISON. 

The judge then seated himself, and Liebknecht 
picked up his hat, looking as if not in the least sur- 
prised. As he was being escorted from the room 



94 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

the scene dissolved, and the President appeared, 
closing his book and laying it down. He then rested 
his elbow upon the desk and with his chin in his 
hand, stared through space for a moment in deep 
study, after which he picked up his pen and the 
scene faded away as he was writing very briskly 
upon the paper which had been laying before him all 
the while. 

The President was next shown addressing Con- 
gress in joint session, and with the galleries packed, 
after which the U. S. History appeared with a page 
turning, and when the following page was seen, a 
mighty cheer went up. It showed : 

WAR DECLARED UPON ALL AUTOCRACY 

"And yet a lot of fool people keep harping about 
us not having any business in the war," said Uncle 
Howard, "they say that the President was too hasty 
in declaring war, that it is not our fight, and all sorts 
of such things. I think he displayed remarkable 
patience in holding off as long as he did. It was not 
only a humanitarian or sympathetic affair, but a 
matter of self-preservation as well. License has al- 
ways encroached upon liberty to a more serious de- 
gree than the average man is able to comprehend, 
and I am sure that this production has summarized 
these impediments, no more in detail than did the 
President before preparing his declaration of war 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 95 

— the greatest message ever presented to civilized 
mankind." 

"Oh, this picture is representing the President's 
historical review before he declared war, eh?" in- 
terrupted Ethel; "My, my, hasn't he the most won- 
derful brain? A lot of people said that a college 
professor was not fit to be president because he knew 
nothing about law, and that only a great politician 
or lawyer should have that office, but I think that 
the most of them have changed their minds by this 
time." 

I never saw; a more surprised looking man than 
Uncle Howard was. He looked at Ethel as if he 
thought her mind was entirely blank, then finally 
answered : 

"If you write him a letter you don't have to wait 
till he looks up your rating with Dun or Bradstreet 
before you get a reply. According to his way of 
thinking, the world is not filled with a few some- 
bodies and a lot of nobodies." 

Activities at naval stations, army mobilization, 
and munition workers at work were then shown to 
be in rapid progress ; also aeroplane factories, radio 
and aero schools were shown, after which Carson 
again came into the production. 

The front of the Blackman Packing Company's 
office was shown, with a large flag draped over the 
name on the window, and soon Carson (whose 
health had been restored and who seemed in the 



96 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

pink of condition) came along, walking slowly. Just 
as he noticed the flag a friend came up, and after 
a warm handshake, Carson called his attention to 
it, and it was easily seen that he was very much out 
of humor, and was talking fast and loud. Every 
passerby stopped and listened until within a very 
short time the sidewalk was blockaded. Young 
Blackman came to the window to see what the com- 
motion was, and it seemed that he must have recog- 
nized Carson from the way his eyes flashed, and, 
looking much alarmed, he grabbed the telephone and 
called the police. Soon a reader appeared which 
explained Carson's anger: 

VISIT THEIR PLANTS AND LISTEN TO THEIR 
GUIDES HOWL ABOUT THEIR "SANITARY" 
PRECAUTIONS: "EVERY EMPLOYEE WHO 
HANDLES MEAT MUST HAVE HIS OR HER 
FINGER NAILS MANICURED TWICE A WEEK", 
AND THEY NEVER FAIL TO SHOW YOU THE 
MANICURISTS AT WORK, BUT THEY TELL YOU 
NOTHING OF THE HORRIBLE SHACKS AND 
FILTH THESE EMPLOYEES ARE FORCED TO 
LIVE IN. 

As the scene returned, several policemen were 
edging their way towards the center of the 
crowd while listening carefully to what Carson 
was saying; he having climbed upon the garbage 
box we had previously noticed, and it seemed that 
they had become as much enthused as any other 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 97 

member of the bunch before they got to him, and 
joined in the hurrahs. 

The scene then shifted and many dingy shacks 
were shown — long lines of them; interiors where 
living conditions were most deplorable; dirty and 
half naked children, some of them just able to crawl 
upon the floors, while their mothers were away at 
work in the packing house. Others who were about 
to become mothers were seen going to and coming 
from work, wearing shawls over their heads ; under- 
takers carrying out dead babies, while priests were 
busying themselves consoling the poor uneducated 
mothers by telling them that conditions would be 
better some day, and that their babies had gone to 
Heaven and would be waiting in the arms of Jesus 
for them when they reached that glorious land. 

Another scene revealed the "Welfare Department" 
of the company. An overworked, nervous and hun- 
ger-beaten woman was appealing to the clerk for as- 
sistance, and after listening to her for a while and 
making a few notes on a piece of paper, the clerk 
sent her away almost smiling, with a consoling : 

WE WILL INVESTIGATE 

"I don't believe such conditions exist anywhere," 
snapped Ethel, to which Uncle Howard quickly re- 
plied, as little children were shown picking up 
tiny pieces of coal along the railroad tracks: 



98 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"If you will turn your limousine in the direction 
of South Normal avenue from 32nd to 55th street, 
and from Normal, west to Western avenue, some 
day when you can cheat your patriotic duties and 
your club work out of a few hours, and will keep 
your eyes open, you will find a lot of things that 
wouldn't be allowed in print. When you see scores 
of ragged and naked, anemic and dying babies in 
huts filthier than the average farmer's pig sty, you 
will not only recall that catchy phrase "Sanitary 
Precautions," but you will wonder if you are in Chi- 
cago or in a dream. Ask their mothers why, under 
such conditions, they wish such large families, and 
they will look at you in a most non-understanding 
way, and finally say: "God gives them to me." 
Hundreds of these babies never tasted milk in their 
lives, and never once had enough to eat. Few of 
these mothers ever saw the lake, went to a park, or 
even a moving picture show. The priests tell them 
that the conception of Christ was by the Holy Ghost, 
and that he was meek and lived in poverty all his 
life — that they are living a life just like his, and, oh, 
how glorious it will be when good St. Peter swings 
open the great pearly gates of Heaven, and they see 
those streets, paved With gold so bright that it will 
hurt their eyes — that there will be plenty of light on 
the streets, instead of no lamps at all as there are 
here. 'Of course we get along pretty well now, but 
you will get yours hereafter — contemplation is al- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 99 

ways better than realization', the priests tell them. 
'It is the Divine will of God that the world shall 
always have kings and slaves/ they are told, and 
the priests can easily prove it by Exodus 21:1 to 
11. Kings have always insisted upon their slaves 
raising large families, they flood the labor market 
with cheap labor and make easy marks for politi- 
cians. It has been well said that kings and priests 
object to birth control in the human family for the 
same reason that wolves would in sheep." 

Ethel squirmed quite a bit but said nothing. Her 
folks are very strong in "the faith", but Father 
had a little trouble with the priest a few years ago, 
and we haven't been to church since ; and then Uncle 
Howard has told us so many things and given us so 
many books that are so sensible and reasonable that 
I don't see how any one with the least bit of intelli- 
gence could dispute them. The strongest one against 
our church was written by a nun — Maria Monk, who 
escaped from the Black Nunnery, Hotel Dieu Con- 
vent, Montreal, Canada, in 1835, which reveals un- 
challenged facts concerning the brutalities these 
poor women are forced to endure at the hands of 
priests — why neither marry, etc., and Alice says 
that much of the discipline in Protestant hospitals 
today is traceable to this origin and but slightly im- 
proved. So she and I have declared ourselves against 
the church forever. Father is quite skeptical, but 
Mother will say nothing for nor against. 



100 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

As neither of the two stores up at the station 
were selling fresh meat, father took a notion to 
start a butcher shop several years ago, so he bought 
a lot and built a nice shop upon it. Long before it 
was completed traveling men were begging for con- 
tracts to furnish him with meat, but he preferred 
to buy fat stuff around the country and kill it here 
at home. He thought it would be both cheaper and 
better, but just about the time he got things going 
right good, one of these salesmen rented a corner in 
the back of one of the stores and put in a shop and 
a man to run it, and sold meat cheaper than father 
could buy the stock; and before he realized what a 
mountain he was trying to buck against, he had lost 
a bunch of money and was in a close corner. This, 
however, did not concern the priest, and when father 
failed to pay the pew rent promptly, he was so se- 
verely criticised that we never went back, but Eth- 
ePs folks are very wealthy, as I said before, and con- 
tribute very liberally to the church, so naturally 
they are among the most prominent members. 

As the final scene of a lively Sunday afternoon, 
with many men and women of this district drink- 
ing beer and whisky faded away, a reader appeared. 

AND EVERY WEEK OR SO 

after which a banquet in a classy hotel was shown, 
with its many guests enjoying a hilarious time. At 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 101 

the head of the table was the elder Mr. Blackman 
and his wife; the latter, a very large and dignified 
woman, decorated with a beautiful gown, long 
strings of beads about her neck and large diamonds 
in her ears and on her fingers. Next to her was 
young Blackman, puffing his cigarette as usual. 

$7.50 PER PLATE 

appeared over the scene just before it jumped back 
to Carson upon the box, still swinging his arms and 
pointing towards the flag, his audience becoming 
more enthusiastic at every moment ; and as a reader 
appeared Uncle Howard first tightened his fists, 
then made several notes in his book, but said noth- 
ing. The reader was: 

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT FLAG? 
WITH AUTOCRACY IT IS BUT A CURTAIN BE- 
HIND WHICH HE CONCEALS HIS WOLFISH 
AMBITION— HE HAS MADE A DIRTY RAG OF 
IT— HE IS TRAMPLING IT INTO THE MUCK 
AND THE MIRE AND IT IS UP TO US, GENTLE- 
MEN, TO RETURN IT TO THE DIGNITY OF ITS 
BIRTH: LIBERTY'S SYMBOL OF TRUTH.— WE 
THE WORKING CLASS WHO MUST DAILY TOIL 
TO KEEP THE WORLD ALIVE AND YET WHO 
CAN BOAST OF HARDLY ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN 
OUR OWN EXISTENCE— IT IS UP TO US TO 
DIRECT THE DESTINIES OF THE WORLD AND 
TO REMOVE THE ECONOMIC PRESSURE UN- 
DER WHICH WE HAVE BEEN PLACED BY FOS- 
SILIZED BRAINS. THE PRESIDENT HAS ACTED 



102 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

WISELY AND WE MUST STAND BY HIM. WE 
MUST START AT THE BOTTOM. PUT AN END 
TO MILITARISM AND EXPLOITATION . WILL 
SOON DIE. I AM READY TO GO RIGHT NOW, 
HOW MANY WILL FOLLOW? "MAY JUSTICE 
SUPPORT WHAT LIBERTY HAS GAINED". 

Carson was then shown making his final state- 
ment after which he was followed away by the 
crowd, cheering and waving their hats. 

An army recruiting station was next shown, over 
the door of which was posted a large sign, which 
read: 

DRAFTED MEN CANNOT BECOME OFFICERS 
ENLIST TODAY AND RECEIVE A COMMISSION 

Several men were looking at a machine gun and 
other army equipments in the window, some were 
going in and others coming out, when Carson and 
about a dozen others appeared with a stern and de- 
termined look, and entered without hesitation. The 
scene shifted to the interior of the examination 
room, showing the examining physician as he was 
pronouncing Carson physically perfect. 

"They should have shown some popular young 
lady out in front kissing all the young men that en- 
tered, which was quite a fad when recruiting be- 
gan," suggested Uncle Howard, as the officer seemed 
to be very much impressed with Carson's person- 
ality, and insisted on conversing with him longer 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 103 

than usual, as a reader appeared, explaining the 
drift of the conversation/ 

THREE YEARS AGO I WAS DISCHARGED FROM 
A POSITION WHICH I HAD HELD FOR TWELVE 
YEARS, WHEN THE FIRM'S PHYSICIAN FOUND 
THAT I HAD DEVELOPED TUBERCULOSIS, 
AFTER WHICH ALL ATTEMPTS TO FIND EM- 
PLOYMENT FAILED. IT SEEMS THAT BUSINESS 
MEN HAVE A SYSTEM BY WHICH THEY KEEP 
TAB ON BOTH THEIR EMPLOYEES AND EX-EM- 
PLOYEES, AND CAN TRACE THEM FOR YEARS 
AFTER THEY ARE DISCHARGED. I RECEIVED 
MANY REBUKES AND WAS EVEN SOMETIMES 
KICKED OUT FOR "BOTHERING" THEM. MY 
MOTHER CONTRACTED THE SAME DISEASE, 
AND FROM THAT AND STARVATION, DIED 
TWO YEARS AGO, AND THE FOLLOWING 
DAY WHILE ON MY WAY TO THE LAKE TO END 
IT ALL, I SAW A LADY DROP A PACKAGE AS 
SHE WAS GETTING ON A STREET CAR; I 
CALLED TO HER BUT SHE WAS TOO FAR TO 
HEAR ME, BUT I AM WOW VERY GLAD THAT 
SHE DIDN'T, AS IT PROVED TO BE THE FOR- 
TUNE OF MY LIFETIME. IT WAS A BOOK AND 
IT GAVE ME A NEW HOLD ON LIFE, AND I OWE 
ALL THAT I NOW AM TO IT. IT TAUGHT ME 
NOT ONLY TO EAT AND TO LIVE BUT HOW TO 
THINK AND TO SEE— THAT BOTH PHYSICAL 
AND MENTAL EFFICIENCY DEPEND UPON THE 
QUALITY OF FOOD ONE CONSUMES AS DOES 
ALL OTHER FINISHED PRODUCTS UPON THE 
RAW MATERIALS FROM WHICH THEY ARE 
MADE. 

The physician seemed much interested, and was 



104 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

delighted when Carson offered to lend the book to 
him. Carson left the room, promising he would be 
back soon, as an officer came in and seated' himself 
in front of the doctor. They had talked but a few 
minutes, it seemed, when the telephone rang, which 
the doctor answered, and after a few words hung up. 
As the officer walked out Carson entered and 
handed a book to the doctor which he opened at ran- 
dom, and immediately found something interesting; 
and as the page was shown, we saw it was the same 
book from which the President had been reading. 
The page was: 

262 MALNUTRITION 

There are no biological reasons why man should 
live less than one hundred twenty years in per- 
fect health and happiness, but there are many 
physical reasons why he lives but forty-three in 
anguish and discontent. 

Many a little heart, pumping impoverished blood, . 
etc. 

The camera then glided slowly to the right and 
part of the next — the right hand page was shown: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 105 

MALNUTRITION 263 

An undermined wall is easily pushed over; 
power means success which comes only with health. 
This will never and can never come from eating 
devitalized foods, drinking alcoholic liquors, and 
smoking cigarettes. 

A chain is as strong as its weakest link, the body 
is as strong as its weakest organ, a body-organ is as 
strong as its most deficient element, which defic- 
iency is traceable to the sub-traction of such ele- 
ments that menace the commercial value of foods, 
were they not removed — nutritive value being of 
but primary consideration of said manufacturers; 
and I say without reservation, that when the day 
arrives that tuberculosis (as well as most other 
diseases) ceases to be profitable, it will cease to 
exist. 

"Over 300,000 tuberculars in Illinois alone," whis- 
pered Uncle Howard, "and they are just as thick all 
over the United States and most of Europe, yet, 
practically no attempts have been made to remove 
the cause, which is very, very simple. After a doc- 
tor gets all the money he can out of a tubercular 
patient he usually advises him or her to 'move to a 
more healthy climate/ regardless of where they may 
be living. It is part of the ethics of the profession 
to have a patient die while under the other fellow's 
care. Did you ever ask any of your professors (ad- 
dressing Owen) why all animals besides men and 
cattle are immune to tuberculosis?" 

After the doctor closed the book and tried to 



106 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

thank Carson, but seemingly being unable to com- 
mand words to express his gratitude, Carson started 
talking, and a reader appeared : 

I WANT YOU TO READ EVERY WORD OF IT 
AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT. I WISH 
EVERY CIVILIZED MAN IN THE WORLD COULD 
READ IT. I FEEL SURE THAT IF THEY 
WOULD, WE WOULD BOTH SOON BE LOOKING 
FOR ANOTHER JOB. DOCTORS AND ARMIES 
WOULD BOTH GO OUT OF BUSINESS. I WILL 
CALL FOR IT NEXT WEEK. 

After shaking hands, Carson left the room and 
the scene faded out, leaving the doctor staring as if 
he didn't know what to make of such a statement. 

A page of the U. S. History was then shown to be 
turning, showing: 

GOVERNMENT MOVES TO DEVELOP 
ALL NATURAL RESOURCES 

and as it faded out a number of rapid rivers were 
shown. Niagara, Yosemite, and the Yellowstone 
Falls, with their perpetual energy being wasted, as 
they rush madly toward the sea, were also shown, 
and Uncle Howard went on : 

"Wouldn't our gas, heat, and power corporation 
howl if Uncle Sam would transform all the water 
power in the country into electricity? Engineers 
say that over Niagara alone, five hundred thousand 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 107 

tons of water go tumbling every minute. And isn't 
it a shame that Americans own such a beautiful 
place as Yellowstone Park — the most beautiful spot 
in the world — and yet, so few of them are ever al- 
lowed to visit it? We have built a house and given 
Jim Hill the key. The governments of Switzerland 
and Denmark believe that traveling is man's great- 
est educator, and thus they provide a means whereby 
their entire population may spend at least two weeks 
of each year in getting acquainted with their neigh- 
bors and with their customs, etc. However, these 
governments own their own railroads, which means 
that conveyance is much cheaper than in America." 
The camera then traveled through a mountain- 
ous region, showing oil to be running down the sides 
of high cliffs, and a reader appeared: 

GOVERNMENT NAVAL RESERVE, GARFIELD 
COUNTY, COLORADO, 45,440 ACRES CURLEY 
SHALE FROM 20 TO 2,000 FEET DEEP. 

and after the scene continued for some time it faded 
out. 

The interior of a business office was next shown, 
with a gentleman sitting at a desk, who, upon hear- 
ing a letter fall upon the floor (which we saw fall 
through the letter-hole in the door) picked it up and 
after tearing it open, the letter was shown : 



108 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Office of the Director. Washington 

Mr. H. E. Culmer, 

Chemical and Mining Engineer, 

Chicago, III. 

Dear Sir : 

We are shipping you today, by express, from 
Grand Valley, Colorado, samples of Curley shale, 
wherein we find about 60 gallons of crude oil per 
ton, using the destructive distillation method. We 
believe that you can provide us with a process, 
whereby this residue, which is largely ammonium 
sulphate, a much needed fertlizer, can be saved. 

We believe that twenty billion barrels, is a con- 
servative estimate for the crude oil locked up in 
this shale in Colorado alone. 

Let us hear from you at your earliest convenience. 
Very truly yours, 

Dean E. Winchester 

"Gee, but won't John D. pull his hair when the 
Government gets this thing started?" suggested 
Owen, and Uncle Howard chuckled back: 

"He certainly would if he had any hair to pull. 
The poor old fellow would die of grief if some of 
his income was shut off. According to the report 
in November, 1917, his compounding income was a 
little over $3.17 every time the clock ticks, or $190.26 
every minute, and whether he is awake or asleep. 

"This reminds me of a very singular story a man 
from Iowa, was telling me the other day, for which 
I immediately coined a parallel. About the first of 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 109 

last March, when Francis J. Heney, attorney for the 
Federal Trade Commission, found that some of the 
packers were seeking to sell bull meat to the army, 
and that they had boasted they could charge what 
they wanted to for the Government had to take it 
any way. A cunning old cattle feeder up in East- 
ern Iowa, who knows that the packers usually put 
over most any kind of a deal they wish to through 
some scheme or another, at once set out and bought 
up four carloads of bulls. There was some pretty 
severe fighting among them at first, but within a 
short while a skinny old Hereford had proven him- 
self the champion. His digestive apparatus must 
have been out of order, for he ate but a very small 
amount, but, according to my friend's story, it 
seemed that he was jealous of all the rest because 
they were in good health, and he would circle around 
the feeding trough for hours at a time, hooking 
them right and left ; then after cutting off his horns 
he would back around, kicking like a horse, and 
finally, his owner was forced to place him in a box- 
stall in the barn, but says it will be impossible to 
ever fatten him. 

"Mr. Rockefeller's wealth is equivalent to some- 
thing over one billion bushels of wheat, his stomach 
is in a very bad condition, and he can eat but little 
of it, but, needless to say, like this bull, a poor diges- 
tive apparatus is synonymous with a brutal and 
greedy mind; therefore, he will never get fat, the 



110 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

courts will not allow his horns to be cut off or stop 
him from kicking hungry and starving men, women 
and children away from his feed boxes, nor allow 
him to be placed in a boxstall where he can no long- 
er harm the peaceful ones. 

"The Government will take you boys into its army 
and ask you to give up all you have — your lives, and 
at the same time permit him to dump a hundred 
thousand bushels of wheat into his bin every day 
that must not be touched. Along with Witchcraft, 
this will be recorded upon the black pages of Ameri- 
can History by future generations." 

The interior of a woman's club-room was now be- 
ing shown, with many fashionably dressed women 
knitting sweaters, socks, etc. Some were making 
ready to leave, while others were just arriving. 

After a short while, Nellie Martin entered, wear- 
ing the same clothes she wore when shown in her 
room, looking as if she was very nervous and almost 
afraid to tell her wants, and when she received such 
a royal welcome, her nervousness seemed to become 
more intense. She looked as if she had never been 
treated so kindly in all her life, and knew not how 
to receive such courtesy. After telling her mission, 
they all began to tell her at the same time that she 
was in the wrong place, and to direct her as to where 
to go, when one offered to accompany her, and the 
scene faded out as they were leaving the room. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 111 

The superintendent of a hospital sitting at her 
desk was next shown, and soon Nell and the lady 
appeared. After introducing Nell, the lady pro- 
ceeded to explain to the superintendent that Nell 
wished to enter training to become a Red Cross 
nurse, and after a short while she went out. The 
scene faded out, while Nell remained talking to the 
superintendent. 

The scene then opened at an army officers' train- 
ing camp as selections w.ere being made and com- 
missions were being granted. After several had 
been passed upon, Carson stepped forward, and one 
could easily see that he was in even better physical 
health than when he enlisted. He was granted the 
commission of captain, after which a very excitable 
affair was shown to take place about the Blackman 
household. 

Young Blackman met the letter carrier at the 
front gate, who gave him a postal card, and after 
joking for a moment both turned, but Blackman had 
gone but a few steps until he stopped and looked 
staringly at the card, which was shown to be his 
draft card (No. 248), instructing him to report at 
the armory in 24 hours. After staring at it for a 
moment he started on the run towards the house, 
and just about the time he got to the porch, he heard 
his father's car coming, turned and ran back to the 
gate which he found locked. Again he ran to the 
house to get the key, and this time got upon the porch 



112 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

just as the lackey dashed out the door with it. It 
was very laughable indeed, but at the same time I 
think every body was sympathizing with* the poor 
fellow ; he was so excited that he even lost his cigar- 
ette. 

By and by the gate was unlocked and the young 
man got to the curbstone sobbing pitifully, just as 
his father was alighting, and presented the postal to 
him, which he read carefully, then patted the boy 
upon the back as they started towards the house; 
while the chauffeur looked on as if wondering what 
he should do, and yet as if afraid to ask. 

As the father and son entered the house the scene 
shifted to the interior, showing them entering. The 
boy was almost hysterical, and his cries attracted 
the mother, who came running into the room only 
about half dressed. The demonstration was both 
pathetic and funny. The father by this time had 
thought of a scheme whereby the boy might be 
saved from going to the army, and began telling the 
mother and hurrying her to make ready, that they 
would all go and see what could be done. Two 
maids were then called to assist her in getting ready, 
but as they were too slow, she jerked her things 
from them and as she left the room, her hat was on 
one side of her head, her hair down, her shoes not 
laced, and her coat well twisted. 

They were then shown in a lawyer's office, all 
pleading with the lawyer, who only shook his head 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 113 

and assured them that nothing could be done. How- 
ever, the father was not yet willing to stop, and 
grabbed the telephone, but after a brief conversa- 
tion hung up, shaking his head in despair, and the 
scene faded out as they were leaving the office, both 
mother and son crying. 

The next scene was very pathetic — hundreds of 
young men were bidding their relatives and friends 
good-by at a railroad station, among whom were 
the Blackmans. Many mothers fainted as their boys 
were pulled away from them, and as the train was 
pulling out and Mr. Blackman and a nurse were 
shown working over Mrs. Blackman, the scene faded 
out. 

A drill field on a training camp was next shown, 
with a large number of men coming on for their 
first time, among whom was young Blackman, and 
with Captain Carson in charge. One could easily 
see from their facial expressions that each recog- 
nized the other; however, nothing was said, but 
Blackman dropped his head at first as if very much 
ashamed of What had passed, while Carson, calmly 
executed his duties. 

After a short while the scene closed, and immedi- 
ately opened at night-time, showing young Black- 
man seated at a writing desk, writing a letter as 
Carson entered. Blackman jumped to his feet and 
saluted the Captain, who returned it, and as he 
started talking in a firm yet pleasant manner, and 



114 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

at the same time handing him a book, which Black- 
man nervously accepted, a reader appeared : 

* 

YOUNG MAN— YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN FILLED 
WITH VILE THOUGHTS AND CRUEL DEEDS, 
LUXURY AND WASTE— NOW YOU WILL BE 
TAUGHT AND MADE TO REALIZE THE TRUE 
PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY. FORGET YOUR 
JEERS OF YESTERDAY FOR I HOLD MALICE 
TOWARDS NO MAN— READ THIS BOOK— THEN 
THINK! 

Blackman thanked him heartily and, placing the 
book under his arm, drew a package of cigarettes 
from his pocket and offered one to Carson, who po- 
litely declined, saying : 

I DO NOT WISH TO INJURE YOUR FEELINGS, 
BUT FOR YOUR OWN PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND 
MORAL BENEFIT I WILL SAY THAT IT DOESN'T 
REQUIRE INTELLIGENCE TO SMOKE THOSE 
THINGS, AND THAT DEMOCRACY WILL BE 
BASED UPON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF CLEAR- 
MINDED, FAR-SEEING, AND SCIENTIFIC MINDS 
AND NOT UPON THE DREAMS OF A CIGARETTE. 

Blackman looked at Carson for a moment as if 
somewhat perplexed then turned and threw the 
whole package into the waste-basket, seized Carson 
by the hand and told him that he was done with 
them forever, and as Carson walked away with 
Blackman's eyes admiringly following him, the scene 
faded out. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 115 

Both Owen and Ethel squirmed nervously in their 
seats, but not a word was spoken by any one. 

The U. S. Hisory then appeared with page turn- 
ing, and showed: 

HIGH COST OF LIVING INVESTIGATION 

which brought a laugh and when the page turned 
showing : 

VICE INVESTIGATION HELD 

a general ha ! ha ! came from all over the room, but 
when the next page showed : 

CAUSE FOUND 

all were as still as death, eagerly watching what was 
coming next. 

LOW WAGES 

was the non-surprising solution. Several others 
were shown: 

SENATE ORDERS 
INVESTIGATION OF RAILROADS 



116 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ONE MEATLESS DAY PER WEEK AND 
ONE MEATLESS MEAL PER DAY FOR 
CONSERVATION OF FOODS 

MANUFACTURE OF 
DISTILLED LIQUORS PROHIBITED 

"Congress exercised great forethought in not pro- 
hibiting the manufacture of wine along with whis- 
key/* whispered Uncle Howard. "I am sure that 
no ship would ever return that had been launched 
without a bottle of wine having been broken against 
its stern, and the dear old Monks of St. Denys would 
raise from their tombs should this blessed tradition 
vanish/' 

Mr. Edison, working in his laboratory with a num- 
ber of assistants, upon several devices which were 
quite strange to all of us, was then shown, after 
which a German submarine was shown ready to 
depart from her dock and with crew going below, 
and just as the captain was about to enter the hatch- 
hole, a messenger boy came running at top speed, 
shouting, and waving his cap with one hand, and a 
piece of paper with the other. The captain saw him, 
and walked to the end of the boat, received the mes- 
sage, and proceeded to read it as it was shown. It 
was written on a sheet of paper with no letterhead 
except the Iron Cross, and was in German script, 
which instantly dissolved into English. It read: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 117 

Every man must stand spotless in his own eyes, in 

the eyes of his conscience Otherwise he 

would be a mere tool, and he cannot and will not 
be any body's tool but God's. But when we are at 
one with God, and with our conscience, then our 
action is endowed with superhuman strength. We, 
therefore, ask each other in this decisive hour: 
"Does our conscience, the God of our soul, go forth 
with us in this fight?" 

Our motive is not a desire for power, nor for ex- 
pansion of frontier, nor is it for self interest, our 
cause is that of morality, of righteousness against 
frivolity, arrogance, and envy; the truth against 

falsehood and cunning This means that 

we go forth to war as Christians, precisely as 
Christians as we understand Christianity; it means 
that we have God on our side, and if God can be 
for us, who can be against us? Thus we say: "With 
God we go about our work!" Can our enemies say 
this? NO, not one of them; only we can say it. 

Our Nation is the future of humanity, the center of 
God's plan for the world, and we love our Earthly 
Fatherland, which is God's seedcorn for the future, 
so much that we gladly barter our Heavenly for it. 
for it. 

Our Nation is our existence and God has taken it 
under ihis special care; it is our faith, the meaning 
and depth of the World. 

I regard my whole power as given to me by Heaven. 
I rule by Divine right, my soldiers fight Divinely, 
the submarines will win the day — we cannot lose. 



This was signed in the same hand as the previous 



118 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

message — the one which the general read to his 
army. 

"The world never knew an autocrat who wasn't 
exceedingly religious," said Uncle Howard. "Some 
are shielded from justice by an army of soldiers, 
with instruments of instant death, while others are 
protected by an army of lawyers who inflict a slow 
death by starvation, but they always have had and 
always will have, as long as they will be allowed to 
exist, plenty of priests ready to testify that their 
acts are 'the will of God\ 

"Whenever the world makes a hero, it is quite 
necessary that a large number of people be slaugh- 
tered, and it is right that they should be slaughtered, 
because the majority of people think it is right; 
the majority of people think it is right because tra- 
dition told them so, and they will continue to be di- 
rected by tradition as long as their brains are the 
same shape as they are today ; so when we stop and 
think for a moment about our brain structure, and 
remember that it conforms to our skull, which is 
made of bone, we can easily understand why it re- 
quires so long to change it, and for the race to relin- 
quish myth to logic. The Kaiser is ambitious to have 
his name go down in history as being the world's 
greatest hero and to have his statue go up in all the 
great art museums just in front of those of Alex- 
ander, Napoleon, and Caesar. 

"Napoleon once said that God was always on the 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 119 

side with the largest battalion, and was he not right? 
When Mohammed started out upon his career, it was 
necessary that he enter a certain cave to receive 
revelations in privacy from the Deity, as he had 
neither army nor priests with which he could force 
people to yield to his desires, but when the Kaiser 
inherited his great army he was at once at liberty to 
communicate with the Deity and at any and all times 
to pick revelations from the clouds from wherever 
he happened to be; and to contradict the Kaiser 
would be, even more suicidal for one of his subjects 
than it would be for us to suggest here in Free 
America that the World needs a new Deity. 

"Some of us may wonder why the Turk is so blood- 
thirsty, but when we read in the Koran — the inspired 
book of Mohammed : The sword is the key to heav- 
en', and 'to die in battle is to enter Paradise', we 
can easily understand. Again we may wonder why 
there is so much hate and so little love among Chris- 
tians, but when we read in Luke 14 :26, 'If any man 
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, 
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, 
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple', 
we should not be surprised. So you see, with the 
Bible as his guide and with Hindenburg as his Her- 
cules, this great Christian hero, king and preacher, 
the Kaiser, who, we are told, for many years arose 
at six every morning and rode on horseback from 
Potsdam to Berlin, a distance of seventeen miles, 



120 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

where he ordered the maneuvering of his troops 
until two in the afternoon, getting ready his great 
machine for the coming neck-chopping, and who 
spent the rest of the day preaching the Gospel — 
comforting his dupes by promising eternal happiness 
for those that were loyal to their Divine leader; 
eyes for the blind and wings for all that God would 
call home during their great struggle for righteous- 
ness; promising the maidens and widows that the 
Lord would send an angel to them as he did to the 
wife of Manoah, who would cause them to bring 
forth men like Sampson who would ever uphold the 
Fatherland, and that they would be rewarded by re- 
ceiving a front seat in the New Jerusalem where 
they could sit upon the 'circle of the Universe' all 
through eternity, looking down into a lake of fire 
and brimstone, upon their writhing enemies who 
would forever burn and plead, is providing the world 
with a history even more bloody than either the Bible 
or the Koran. 

"In his speech at Brandenburg in 1890, the Kaiser 
said : 'I look upon the nation and people handed on 
to me as a responsibility conferred upon me by God, 
and that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duties 
to increase this heritage. Those who try to inter- 
fere with my task I shall crush/ Then, twenty years 
later at Koenigsberg, he said: 'It was on this spot 
that my grandfather in his own right, placed the 
royal crown of Prussia upon his own head, insisting 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 121 

once again that it was bestowed upon him by the 
grace of God alone and not by Parliament or meet- 
ings or decisions of the people. He thus regarded 
himself as the chosen instrument of Heaven and as 
such carried out his duties as a lord and ruler. I 
consider myself such an instrument of Heaven and 
shall go my way without regard to the views and 
opinions of the day\ 

"Preaching in the Berlin Cathedral, one of his 
priests, Prof. Reinold Seeby, recently said: 'We do 
not hate our enemies. We obey the command of God, 
who tells us to love them. But we believe that in 
killing them, in putting them to suffering, in burn- 
ing their houses, in invading their territories, we 
simply perform a work of charity. Divine love is 
seen everywhere in the World, but men have to suf- 
fer for their salvation. Human parents love their 
children, yet they chastise them. Germany loves 
other nations, and when she punishes them it is for 
their good'. Why, outside of the Pope of Rome, the 
Kaiser is the biggest one-man show the World has 
ever seen." 

At this EthePs eyes snapped with anger, but she 
had now begun to realize that there are a few things 
going on the world that are not talked about in clubs 
and churches, so she made no comment. 

By this time the submarine had disappeared be- 
neath the waves. Uncle Sam had shown another 
page of the U. S. History : 



122 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

EQUAL PAY FOR MEN AND WOMEN FOR 
PERFORMING SAME DUTIES 

and a large steamer was being loaded at night-time, 
with soldiers, ambulances, artillery, field kitchens 
and bakeries, ammunition, etc. Soon all was aboard 
and the great boat moved away from the pier, ac- 
companied by several small boats, all with guns 
mounted and lights out, which, of course, interested 
all of us more than any religious argument. 

This same boat was then shown in mid-ocean with 
hundreds of soldiers on deck, among whom we rec- 
ognized both Carson and Blackman, who were talk- 
ing together and leaning against the railing. 

Suddenly a submarine was sighted, and with light- 
ning speed the gunners trained their guns upon it 
and fired three times. Just as the last shot was fired, 
the second one hit, and instantly the air above the 
craft was filled with flying pieces of steel and black 
clouds of smoke, and as the ship passed over the spot 
where it had gone down, the water seemed to be cov- 
ered with a thick coat of oil. 

This was followed by a sight which brought forth 
a roar of applause. This same boat was being un- 
loaded in France at early dawn, and after a few sec- 
onds the scene shifted, as the orchestra struck up 
"Yankee Doodle", and showed our boys marching 
down the streets of Paris. Both Carson and Black- 
man were easily distinguished, while thousands lined 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 123 

the sidewalks on both sides of the streets, most of 
whom were women and children, with a few old men 
and crippled soldiers. 

Carson and Blackman were then shown Strol- 
ling in the residence district of Paris, gazing 
with much interest upon some of its peculiarly 
shaped dwellings. Soon they met two young wom- 
en whose countenances displayed eagerness for the 
boys to talk to them, which at once set Blackman's 
eyes to dancing, but when he saw that Carson was 
unmoved and looked as if he had not even seen 
them, he calmed down and went on, while the girls 
looked pleadingly back at them. 

They were next shown at a bathing beach, sitting 
upon a bench some distance form the bathers, who 
were mostly young women. Several American sol- 
diers were sitting in the sand, chatting merrily with 
the many maidens (which Uncle Howard styled "the 
fast type"), whose fur-trimmed bathing suits evi- 
denced cloth conservation. Blackman was very ner- 
vous and it was easily seen that he wanted to get into 
the bunch so badly that he was in misery, but Car- 
son paid no more attention to them than he would 
have were they so many small children. Finally, 
after several unsuccessful attempts to say some- 
thing, as it seemed that he could not get the words 
out of his mouth, and while the audience was scream- 
ing with laughter, he looked Carson squarely in the 
eyes and said: 



124 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

FOR THE LOVE 0' MIKE MAN, DON'T YOU CARE 
ANYTHING ABOUT A WOMAN? 

Carson nodded his head slightly in his usual stern 
but pleasant way, answering: 

YES— I AM A GREAT ADMIRER OF A LADY— 
AND A LADY CAN BE A LADY ANY PLACE TOO, 
UNLESS SHE IS STARVED INTO IMMORALITY, 
BUT THERE ARE NO HUNGRY ONES IN THAT 
BUNCH— THEY ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF 
FLIRTS AND I DISLIKE A FLIRT ABOVE ALL 
THINGS, WHETHER MAN OR WOMAN! DIDN'T 
YOU READ THAT BOOK I GAVE YOU? MARRI- 
AGES ARE MANY BUT MATTNGS ARE FEW. I 
WILL FIND AN AFFINITY OR I WILL GO 
THROUGH LIFE ALONE— THAT REMAINS FOR 
THE FUTURE TO SOLVE. 

This lecture caused Blackman to abandon his in- 
terest in the girls and as he rested his elbow upon his 
knee, with his chin in his hand and staring through 
space, Carson took an old letter from his pocket and 
after tearing open the side of the envelope proceeded 
to write upon it, and as he handed it to Blackman, it 
was shown upon the screen. It read : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 125 



The thing in life that most puzzles me — 

That I least can understand: 
Why the conduct of men may be careless, 

Yet, they of women, strictness command. 
(That is, their sweethearts, wives, and sisters) 

I wonder if the day will come 
When, by intellectual growth, 

Society will change its customs, 
And there'll be one law for both. 



"When the majority of men get their first glance 
at a beautiful woman, their thoughts are no differ- 
ent from the thoughts of a dog when a female comes 
in his sight — he relishes the destruction of her vir- 
tue no less than the lion relishes the devouring of a 
lamb/' Uncle Howard whispered, then went on : "It 
is the way his brain is made, I tell you, and it will 
take time, and above all rational education and good 
breeding to change it. Society will surrender to a 
double standard as long as might is right and as long 
as it prefers the guidance of such men as Solomon, 
or Gideon, or Joseph Smith, just because they were 
inspired, to a program of respectability and decency. 
There are thousands of women and girls in the 
Bridewell and in the House of the Good Shepherd in 
Chicago, and at Geneva, Illinois, and hundreds of 
other such prisons throughout the country, for com- 
mitting acts that society bows to men for doing." 

And as Owen wiped the perspiration from his 



126 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

brow, and Blackman, seemingly greatly affected, 
folded the envelope and placed it in his pocket, with 
a deep sign leaned back against the seat. 

In a moment Carson continued the conversation, 
and another reader appeared : 

LOOKING AT THIS AS THE AVERAGE MAN OF 
THE WORLD DOES YOU SHOULD NOT LOSE 
SIGHT OF THE FACT THAT SOCIAL DISEASES 
HAVE INCREASED GREATLY SINCE THIS WAR 
BEGAN AND THAT OVER NINETY PER CENT OF 
THE RACE IS AFFECTED. KEEP YOUR HEAD 
LEVEL AND GO HOME CLEAN. 

Knowing that I was in the draft, Uncle Howard 
clipped one of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poems from a 
newspaper and sent it to me last Fall, and wrote that 
he wished it was possible for every soldier to read it, 
and when this reader appeared he asked me if I had 
shown it to Owen. The poem was : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 127 
SOLDIERS, 'COME BACK GLEAN 



This is a song for a soldier 

To sing as he rides from home 
To the fields afar where the battles are 

Or over the ocean's foam. 
"Whatever the dangers waiting 

In the lands I have not seen, 
If I do not fall — if I come home at all — 

Then I will come home clean. 

"I may lie in the mud of the trenches, 

I may reek with blood and mire, 
But I will control, the God of my soul, 

And might of my man's desire. 
I will fight my foe in the open, 

But my sword shall be sharp and keen 
For the foe within who would lure me to sin, 

And I will come back clean. 

"I may not leave for my children 

Brave medals that I have worn, 
But the blood in my veins shall have no stains 

On bride or on babes unborn. 
And the scars that my body shall carry 

Shall not be from deeds obscene, 
For my will shall say to the beast, OBEY! 

And I will come back clean. 

"Oh, not on the fields of slaughter, 

And not in the prison cell, 
Or in hunger and cold is the story told 

By war of its darkest hell. 
But the old, old sin of the senses 

Can tell what that word may mean 
To the soldiers' wives and to innocent lives, 

And I will come back clean." 



128 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

As the scene closed Carson was looking casually 
about while Blackman seemed very much depressed, 
which suggested to me that he probably had already 
contracted such a disease. 

The interior of an army library was next shown; 
Blackman and three other soldiers standing near, 
and Carson some distance away writing upon a type- 
writer. One of the soldiers took a package of ciga- 
rettes from his pocket and passed them around, but 
Blackman refused, and as the other three were light- 
ing theirs, Carson finished his copy, then walked over 
to the little party and handed it to Blackman, who 
thanked him heartily, then proceeded to read it as 
Carson walked away. It was then shown : 

It's not my wish nor soul's desire 

To be a harem's king, 
If all men's hearts this would inspire 

What joy to the world it would bring. 
No bordel' s door have I entered, 

Nor harlot's lips would I touch, 
On higher plains my thoughts are centered, 

And I respect my old mother too much. 

Give me a girl with an active mind — 

A thinker and not a parrot; 
Whose complexion is not of the drug-store kind, 

And who wears no hour-glass corset. 
I want not one of society's rage, 

Who drinks highballs, cocktails, and wine, 
And uses the streets as a vaudeville stage, 

Just the old-fashioned girl for mine. 

George Carson 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 129 

"According to Professor H. Blummer," said Uncle 
Howard, as Blackman folded the paper and proceed- 
ed to write upon the typewriter, after getting some 
stationery at the clerk's desk, "Greek women an- 
nointed their bodies with fragrant essences, dyed 
their hair, rouged their lips, and painted their eye- 
brows and faces to attract the frivolous men, who 
were in the majority then as well as now, and at 
which the comic poets directed their sharpest arrows 
in vain 500 years B. C, and as long as man shall re- 
main fickle and capricious, woman will continue to 
do this. Adaptation to environment is a law of life, 
and when the time arrives that the Autocracy in 
man shall fall — the rule by Divine right, which is 
mentioned many times in the inspired word, and his 
intelligence shall rise to where he will be more at- 
tracted by intelligent minds than by beautiful fig- 
ures, pretty legs, and camouflaged faces — when the 
real will be more attractive than the counterfeit, he 
will find her also advanced and able to provide his 
requirements. Why the most conspicuous woman 
upon the street today is the one who is unpainted 
and most sensibly dressed." 

Blackman's letter was then shown : 



130 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Mr. J. G. Blackman, Sr., 
2719 Sheridan Road, 
Chicago, 111. 

Dear Father: 

Landed here safely, 6:30 this A. M. We sighted 
one sub. the second day out, and put her up just as 
she was going under. 

Captain Carson and I have grown to be very fast 
friends, and I want to tell you that he has certainly 
made a different man out of me. He is sure radical, 
but his arguments are all logical. He says that any 
man who is afraid to question anything is a mental 
slave, and the smaller mental platform one has, the 
more vanity, demagogism, and superstition can lay 
upon it; and he's not the only radical here either by 
any means, it seems that most of the boys are. I 
certainly have gotten my eyes open since I left 
home, and as I see things now, life isn't worth liv- 
ing as I lived then. 

There's a Red Cross nurse over here by the 
name of Nellie Martin, that used to work in one of 
the State Street stores; they call her Radical Nell. 
Although she has been here but a month, they say 
she is the talk of the country. She wrote a poem 
embodying a concrete definition of Democracy, and 
why we are at war, when she first came over, and it 
has gained admiration for her all over the land, as 
it has been widely circulated. Haven't seen a copy 
of it yet, but will try to get one and send to you in 
next letter. 

Give my regards to all the girls in the office, and 
tell them I am not the same fellow I used to be; 
give my love to Mother and tell her not to worry. 
Write soon, 

A. E. F. Via N. Y. Claude, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 131 

He was then shown to be folding the letter and 
placing it in an envelope, and as he was depositing 
it in the letter box the scene faded out. 

Several suggestions of how the German spies are 
working in this country were next shown; the first 
showed four chemists working in a laboratory, pack- 
ing small glass tubes in small boxes, while one of 
them was presenting a box to an outside man and in- 
structing him how to use it, which was explained by 
a reader : 

HEREWITH FOUR TUBES FOR HORSES AND 
FOUR FOR HORNED CATTLE, EACH TUBE IS 
SUFFICIENT FOR 200 HEAD. IF POSSIBLE AD- 
MINISTER DIRECT THROUGH THE ANIMAL'S 
MOUTH AND IF NOT, IN ITS FODDER. SHOULD 
BE OBLIGED FOR LITTLE REPORT ON SUCCESS 
WITH YOU. IF THERE SHOULD BE GOOD NEWS 
TO REPORT, HERR K'S. PRESENCE HERE FOR A 
DAY IS DESIRABLE. 

This spy was next shown applying for a position 
at a large stock farm where his suspicious actions 
caused the proprietor to lead him to where there 
were several employes to whom he gave the wink, 
and in a second they all sprang upon him and found 
the poisonous germs. 

Other spies were shown to be working in munition 
factories, aeroplane plants, ship-yards, etc., while 
still another was shown in an attempt to poison the 
water supply in a large pumping station, all of which 



132 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

were soon foiled by our secret service department. 

The President was then shown, reading a news- 
paper, a column of which was shown : 



376 HAVE INCOMES OF 
MILLION A YEAR. 

Washing-ton, Dec. 1, 1917 — Daniel C. 
Goper, Commissioner of Internal Reve- 
nue, announced today that there are 
three times as many persons in the 
United States, drawing incomes of 
$1,000,000 a year as there were a year 
ago. 

Ten persons have incomes of more 
than $5,000,000 yearly. 

Three hundred and seventy-six per- 
sons paid taxes on incomes of $1,000,000 
a year according to the report, compared 
with 120 individuals paying taxes on 
similar amounts in 1916. 

The number reporting and their in- 
comes follows: 

$ 3,000 to $ 4,000 85,122 

4,000 to 5,000 72,027 

5,000 to 10,000 150,551 

10,000 to 15,000 43,305 

15,000 to 50,000 59,311 

50,000 to 100,000 10,452 

100,000 to 150,000 2,900 

150,000 to 200,000 1,284 

200,000 to 1,000,000 2,238 



"I saw an account in a newspaper last Spring, stat- 
ing that over fourteen thousand men in the United 
States have arrived at the million goal since the 
country entered the war," whispered Owen. 

"And every time you make a millionaire, you make 
a thousand paupers/' answered Uncle Howard, as 
the President was shown laying down the news- 
paper, shaking his head as if he were saying to him- 
self : "That will never do," and picking up a sheet of 
paper which, in turn was shown : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 133 

The average cow eats 9125 pounds of food per year 
(25 pounds per day) and produces 5110 pounds of 
milk (14 lbs. per day). 

But few cows have perfect health, 
therefore, their milk is not of the most 
desirable quality. 

The average hen eats 90 pounds of solid food per 
year, (besides succulent foods; grass, sprouted oats, 
cabbage, beets, etc.) and produces an average of 
eggs. 

100 pounds of food when fed to a steer will pro- 
duce approximately 4 pounds of edible substance. 

100 pounds of food fed to a hog will produce ap- 
proximately 18 pounds of edible substance. 

100 pounds of food fed to a sheep will produce ap- 
proximately 3% pounds of edible substance. 

100 pounds of food fed to poultry will yield ap- 
proximately 12 pounds of edible substance (flesh). 

Hundreds of thousands of eggs and 
chicks are lost each year during the in- 
cubation and brooding process, and, the 
older fowl, as is the hog, are quite sus- 
ceptible to disease, while sheep are sub- 
ject to the ravages of dogs. 



"Ha, it looks as if Mr. Heney and Frank Walsh 
are not the only ones who are trying to open the eyes 
of the public, and show them the canals through 
which their money is flowing into the banks of the 
Beef Trust," said Uncle Howard. "This 'get rich 
quick on poultry' game of theirs is the biggest joke 
yet, and they are sure doing it, too; but when you 
stop to think a moment you cannot be surprised. 
You know Barnum has never been disputed — 'the 



134 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

American people love to be humbugged/ and 'there's 
a sucker born every minute'. 

"I have visited hundreds of poultry plants and 
never saw one that was self-sustaining. All of the 
proprietors were well supplied with excuses, and 
explained that they were 'just getting into shape'; 
and strangest of all, the most of them were 
sincere." Then, turning to me, he said: "Wasn't 
that a bone-head trick the Food Administrator 
pulled last winter? Instead of encouraging people 
to Hoganize their hens — get rid of all the drones, he 
forbade the killing of a single hen for forty-five days 
right when feed was the highest; and instead of 
teaching house-keepers rational conservation of 
foods, this department is surrendering to their ex- 
travagance and inefficiency by advertising in the 
newspapers and sending lecturers through the coun- 
try, urging every family to 'keep hens to eat the ta- 
ble-scraps'. There should be no scraps; but, of 
course, he is a business man and is not expected to 
be a biologist and an economist also." 

We have had one of Walter Hogan's books for sev- 
eral years, and usually keep about one hundred and 
fifty hens, none of which will lay less than 200 eggs 
per year, selected according to his method, but what 
was occupying my mind most at this moment was 
those figures on cattle, hogs, and sheep, and when I 
got home I referred to Henry and Morrison's 'Feeds 
and Feeding', and Sleeter Bull's 'Principles of Feed- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 135 

ing Farm Animals' and found them to be quite cor- 
rect. 

Uncle Sam turned another page of history, show- 
ing: 

CONSCRIPTION OF LABOR— LAW ENACT- 
ED PROVIDING THAT IDLE MEN, RE- 
GARDLESS OF SOCIAL POSITION, BE 
CHARGED WITH VAGRANCY 

— and another: 

TWO MEATLESS DAYS PER WEEK- 
ONE MEATLESS MEAL EACH DAY 

— and another, showing: 

LAW ENACTED PROVIDING THAT SAIL- 
ORS AND SOLDIERS BE GRANTED FREE 
TRANSPORTATION UPON ALL RAIL- 
ROADS—STEAM AND ELECTRIC AND 
UPON ALL STEAMSHIP LINES 

Uncle Howard went on without a halt: "I believe 
the 'chicken fever' is more contagious than the small- 
pox, as it seems that but very few people are immune 
to it, and now since they have been told that it is 
patriotic, the temperature of most of those afflicted 
lingers near the boiling point. They seem to forget 



136 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

that paper will not refuse ink, and when they read 
the soothing flattery — misleading, profuse, inconsist- 
ent, and unscientific advertising literature of the 
'big' poultry-feed manufacturers, signed by 'learned 
chemists' and indorsed by 'eminent professors', it 
would require an army larger than Pershing's to 
stop their stampede. 

"I have lately noticed that some of these leading 
poultry-food manufacturers have ceased telling 
their dupes that dried packing-house by products — 
'meat scraps' — are as nutritious for poultry as live 
insects, and are now filling them with 'scientific 
knowledge' of the virtues of the lactic acid in but- 
termilk; then they go on and tell them that the 
same results can be had from feeding dried butter- 
milk, which has been subjected to a temperature 
during the drying process wherein no lactic bacilli 
sould survive, that the original product will yield. 
I have often wondered how long it will be before 
people will realize that better results are to be 
achieved by electing live statesmen for public ser- 
vants than dead politicians." 

UNCLE SAM AT WORK 

appeared in a reader, after which some of the scen- 
ery near Grand Valley, Colorado, was briefly re- 
viewed. This time, however, large forces of men 
were breaking down the shale, which was being 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 137 

carried to the separating plant, both by gravity- 
slides and by trolley motors, the power for which 
was being generated by near-by water falls. 

After showing the distillation process at some 
length, a reader explained that from the oil ex- 
tracted, twenty-five per cent is intensified gasoline 
— contains a large amount of nitrogen, which adds 
greatly to its propulsive energy, and from the re- 
maining seventy-five per cent, numerous qualities 
of lubricating oils, paint, paraffin, wood and fabric 
dyes, etc., are extracted. The residue — a black, 
mealy substance, was running into flat-cars. 

The camera then traveled about in a large ship- 
yard, showing scores of ships under construction, 
most of which were steel and wood, and but a few 
of concrete, finally stopping where one was being 
made of this shale-oil residue, which we had just 
seen being dumped into cars. It was being mixed 
with some finely powdered substance and in an as- 
phalt mixer, and as the black and smoking material 
was shown to be working its way about the network 
of steel reinforcement rods, into the same sort of 
mold used in concrete ship construction, and with 
Mr. Culmer looking on as if much pleased with the 
outcome of his research, a reader appeared : 

READY TO LAUNCH WHEN GOLD— ONE SHIP 
PER WEEK— IS AFFECTED BY NEITHER OCEAN 
WATER, ACIDS, NOR ALKALIS AND BARNACLES 
WILL NOT ADHERE TO IT. 

(Substance, known as Shipolith) 



138 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Then came a scene of more naval activities, which 
gave the audience a thrill that moved even the least 
emotional. 

By the use of mariner's glasses, a submarine was 
sighted. Immediately an officer sprang to the rail- 
ing with a megaphone and shouted orders to a con- 
voy, which shot away toward the enemy's craft like 
an express train, and after following for a moment, 
a reader appeared: 

THE DEPTH BOMB 

Again the glasses were employed, and just as the 
diver disappeared, the destroyer crossed the path 
in front of it and dropped its bomb, which brought 
the raider to the surface like a cork and the audi- 
ence to its feet with a cheer; but in the next in- 
stance when their cheers had grown into a roar at 
the sight of a white flag springing from the U-boat, 
and as it lay before the trained guns of the de- 
stroyer, the roar turned to screams. A path of 
bubbles, which every one realized was a torpedo 
that the diver had fired just as it was submerging, 
was sighted, and it seemed that it was coming right 
into the orchestra pit. 

The scene shifted, showing a queer looking struc- 
ture about eighty feet long, two feet thick, and 
twenty feet high, suspending from what looked to 
be a heavy barn-door track, and being lowered into 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 139 

the water and over the hole which the torpedo had 
blown into the ship, by a number of sailors who 
seemed to be as calm as if nothing unusual had hap- 
pened. 

The suction held it firmly against the ship's side, 
and as soon as it was in place the interior was 
shown where several sailors were working a large 
lever, which quickly spread the compartment until 
it was about eight feet wide. Soon there were many 
men inside of it, placing a new network of rein- 
forcing rods in the broken wall, and also boarding 
up the sides, as if preparing to fill the cavity with 
new material. Several lines of hose were also 
dropped from the deck and placed through the hole 
to pump the water from the ship. 

A reader then appeared: 

THE CONCUSSION FROM A TORPEDO IS SO 
GREAT THAT OFTEN MOST OF THE SHIP'S 
RIVETS ARE SHEARED, CAUSING IT TO FALL 
TO PIECES. SHIPOLITH, BEING OF AN ELASTIC 
NATURE, YIELDS TO THIS FORCE TO A 
MARKED DEGREE, THUS COMPARATIVELY 
SMALL DAMAGE IS DONE. HOLES FROM 50 TO 
70 FEET LONG MAY BE PATCHED WITHOUT 
STOPPING THE SHIP. 

The interior of the compartment was again 
shown, with a large stream of new material run- 
ning from a spout that extended from the deck 
and into the molds, which were built up several 



140 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

feet and upon which the men were rapidly work- 
ing. 

A great artillery battle was next shown, with 
Carson in command. Cannons were sitting hub to 
hub, and the air seemed to be full of flying missiles 
— exploding shells of the enemy. At the perception 
of gas, masks were quickly donned, an aeroplane 
fell in flames near, while tanks were seen in the dis- 
tance. Red Cross workers were carrying away the 
wounded, among them, a close-up revealed Black- 
man being placed in an ambulance. 

The interior of a hospital was then shown, with 
Nellie Martin and another nurse placing Blackman 
in bed, while many other nurses were busy waiting 
upon the sick and wounded, and just as they were 
about ready to leave him, Carson rushed in, whom 
Blackman recognized; but upon seeing that he was 
too weak to talk, Carson inquired of Nell as to his 
condition, and from the expression upon their faces 
as she explained and pointed, we understood that 
he was hurt in the thigh, but that the wound would 
not prove fatal. It was also noticeable that Carson 
was pleased with Nell's personality, which she did 
not notice, as her whole thought seemed to be upon 
her work. 

After a short stay, Carson patted Blackman upon 
the shoulder and assured him that he would be back 
to see him as soon as possible, then shook hands 
and left the room. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 141 
SAFETY AND HYGENITY FIRST 

appeared in a reader, after which, women were 
shown in overalls, working in munition factories, 
lumber yards, plowing in fields, wiping engines in 
round-houses, etc., after which Uncle Sam again 
appeared with his history, showing: 

THREE MEATLESS DAYS PER WEEK 

Nearly all the farmers around here have large 
orchards as well as large berry patches, and when 
the next page turned most of the people in the the- 
ater looked as if somewhat surprised and yet 
pleased with the suggestion. It read: 

PENALTY FOR FARMERS AND FRUIT GROW- 
ERS WHO ALLOW FRUIT OR VEGETABLES TO 
ROT WITHOUT HAVING NOTIFIED PROPER AN- 
THORITIES OF EXCESS CROPS— IN WHICH 
CASES GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES WILL CART 
SAID FOOD-STUFFS AND DISTRIBUTE THEM 
TO THE POOR IN CITIES. 

"Isn't it a shame that we were so thoughtless, and 
let all those cherries and raspberries go to waste this 
summer, When we could have phoned the Weekly, 
and had them mention that any one could have them 
for the picking?" whispered Alice as Uncle Sam 
showed another page: 

TAXES DOUBLED ON UNTILLED SOIL 



142 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 
And as he turned this page and showed : 

FULL SUFFRAGE GRANTED TO WOMEN, 
GRANTING THEM THE SAME PRIVILEGE 
TO LIVE UPON THE PLANET AS MEN 

Uncle Howard laughed, saying: "This hold- 
ing back on passing that law is sure a joke. There's 
not a Congressman in Washington who will dis- 
pute that full suffrage for women is inevitable, and 
yet they will fool around and debate and quarrel 
over it ; why, look how long it took them to pass the 
daylight-saving bill. It's the same old story of the 
ages: the exploiting class is afraid to give them 
liberty — they are afraid that their damnable profit 
system will crumble if women are allowed to have 
a voice in the world. 

"In many of the Oriental countries, women are 
not allowed to enter a church without a veil over 
their faces, while our 'sacred word' says in Corin- 
thians, 14:34-35: 'Let every woman keep silence in 
the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to 
speak; but they are commanded to be under obedi- 
ence, as also saith the law. And if they will learn 
anything, let them ask their husbands at home : for 
it is a shame for a woman to speak in church/ 

"The time is coming very rapidly when they will 
be free, but they will have to fight and fight hard, 
just as all other slaves have who have gained their 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 143 

liberty. Of course our American churches never 
were quite so strict about women unveiling as the 
Orientals, and in many of them today, women are 
just as much welcomed to remove their hats as men 
are. 

"One of the first signs of intelligence in an infant 
is laughter, but Society says that women must 
laugh very modestly, if at all. 'There is no freedom 
where there are any slaves — there is no equality 
where there are any inferiors — there is no decency 
where masculine brutality looks down upon women.' 

"I offered both the Chicago Tribune and the Chi- 
cago Herald a poem last Fall which I felt would 
add to the fortifications of Suffragism — stop some 
of the dodging of Congressmen, and assist in bring- 
ing about their surrender to the cause, but the edi- 
tors of both these newspapers recited their well 
perpetuated phrase: 'We thank you very much for 
permitting us to examine your manuscript, but we 
are at present, too crowded for space to accept it\" 

The poem was : 

Who gave us their blood, their flesh and our life, 
Who fought all our battles in childhood's strife, 
Who shielded in schooldays when things went wrong, 
And soothed every grief with a tender song? 

A WOMAN. 

For what does man yearn to make life worth while, 
To displace a sad frown with a cheerful smile, 
What else must he have if a mansion he build, 
To make him content and to have his heart filled? 

A WOMAN. 



144 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Who would have the world at peace with no anger and scorn, 
Who would give equal chance to every child that is born, 
Who would see all men happy see truth everywhere, 
See no misery existing, see no beggar's cold stare? , 

A WOMAN. 

Who will fill every yearning with the fragrance of flowers, 
Who will make life more pleasant by shortening laborer's hours, 
Who will stop the intolerance of greedy class-fights 
When permitted to ballot with EQUAL RIGHTS? 

A WOMAN! 

The interior of the hospital was again shown, 
Blackman with head and shoulders raised with pil- 
lows, and reading a magazine. Presently he looked 
up, smiled, and started talking, as Nell came in 
sight who was also smiling and talking, and as she 
handed him a newspaper he held to her hand, to 
which she paid no particular attention and chatted 
on, but when she started away he held on, and as 
she stopped he looked her squarely in the eyes and 
said — as a reader appeared: 

TELL ME LITTLE GIRL, DON'T YOU 
CARE ANYTHING ABOUT A MAN 

At this she smiled very pleasantly, and placing 
her other hand upon his, thus holding it between 
both of hers, answered: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 145 

UNDERSTANDING YOU AS I DO AND ANSWER- 
ING YOUR PRECISE AND SEARCHING QUESTION, 
PLAINLY AND POINTEDLY, I MUST SAY— YES— 
INDEED, BUT THE MAN OF MY IDEALS HAS 
NEVER YET HOVE INTO MY SIGHT, AND IF HE 
NEVER DOES I WILL REMAIN A NURSE. THE 
WORLD IS FULL OF DUPES OF AUTOCRACY, 
AS IT HAS BEEN EVER SINCE AUTOCRACY WAS 
BORN WHO VAINLY CALL THEMSELVES "OPTO- 
MISTS". I WANT A MAN WHO IS NOT AFRAID 
OF WEARING OUT HIS BRAIN BY DOING HIS 
OWN THINKING, AND WHOSE CONDUCT WILL 
WITHSTAND THE SEARCHING LIGHTS OF 
RATIONAL CRITICISM! 

"How many girls are there," said Uncle Howard, 
"who would dare say such things even if they 
thought them? Economically free, woman will be 
the pilot of her own soul and will marry for love 
only, and in a true Democracy she will be as much 
at liberty in the selection of a mate as will man." 

After frowning for a moment and with consid- 
erable sarcasm in his expression, Blackman went 
on: 

I SUPPOSE THE MAN YOU MARRY 
WILL HAVE TO BE A SOCIALIST 

at which Nell smiled broadly, answering : 



146 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

SOCIALISM— IS IDEAL BUT ALL SOCIALISTS 
ARE NOT. MANY OF THEM WILL TALK TO 
YOU ABOUT FREE SPEECH, FREE SCHOOL 
BOOKS, FREE FOOD FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN, 
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF ALL PUBLIC UTILI- 
TIES, AND IN FACT NEARLY EVERYTHING A 
RATIONAL MIND CAN CONCEIVE OF AND AT 
THE SAME TIME THEY WILL BLOW CIGARETTE 
SMOKE OR THE FUMES OF A DISTILLERY INTO 
YOUR FACE, DEPRIVING YOU OF EVEN FREE 
AIR. HOWEVER, IF YOU WILL LOOK DEEP 
ENOUGH, YOU WILL FIND BUT FEW SIGNIFI- 
CANT POLITICAL REFORMS THAT WERE NOT 
FOSTERED BY SOCIALISTS, AND NO SANE PER- 
SON WILL CONTEND THAT SOCIALISM WILL 
NOT SOME DAY GOVERN THE WORLD— BUT, OF 
THE MAN I MARRY, THE ONLY REQUIREMENT 
WILL BE : HE MUST HAVE PLENTY OF GOOD- 
COMMON— SENSE 

"What do you think of Socialism ?" asked Owen 
of Uncle Howard. 

"Socialism," he replied, "is the most rational po- 
litical platform ever constructed, but the Socialist 
Party in this country came near committing sui- 
cide with their St. Louis Platform. Why you could 
come nearer arbitrating with a Mexican bull than 
you could with the Kaiser. If they had asked the 
President to exempt them from combative service I 
believe he would have granted them the same lib- 
erty the clergy enjoys, but when they tried to block 
the whole war program, they should expect no more 
than they got. They have always tried to remove the 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 147 

cause of war, while the clergy has shouted its 
glories; and I might add that if clergymen are sin- 
cere — really believe in a Heaven where peace and 
happiness abide, why do they surround themselves 
with laws exempting them from all military service 
and thus deny them an early opportunity to escape 
the pains and criticisms of life? 

"One of the funniest things I can conceive of is a 
man who claims to be both a Socialist and a Chris- 
tian. Why their affinities are about as close as oil 
and water, and you can rest assured that every 
one of them has a water-filled compartment in his 
brain. 

"But, getting back to our subject, when this war 
is over the World is going to call upon President 
Wilson to dictate its economic program, and you 
will see that all the merit there is in Socialism that 
people are intelligent enough to permit will find a 
place therein. Party lines will dissolve, and merit 
will rule. There will be no malice or hatred, no 
prejudice, and no envy; if they have merit, his most 
bitter opponents will be placed where they may 
yield a benefit to mankind. I refuse to look at any 
man through magnifying glasses, observing all 
with the naked eye, and in saying that President 
Wilson is among the foremost of the master minds 
of the World, it is without emotion ; but there are too 
many peasants, in America as well as elsewhere, to 
have real Socialism yet. That will come only through 



148 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

the evolution of the mind." 

Hesitating a moment and gripping Nell's hand 
tighter, Blackman continued: 

WELL YOU ARE SURE SOME GIRL, BUT TELL 
ME, WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THOSE IDEAS 

At this she smiled broadly and took a paper from 
her pocket, which she unfolded and handed to him, 
saying: 

I WORKED FOR FOUR YEARS IN A DEPART- 
MENT STORE WHERE I GOT MY EYES OPENED 
AND LEARNED TO THINK FOR MYSELF, AND I 
WILL NO LONGER ALLOW ANY ONE TO DIC- 
TATE WHAT I SHALL THINK. I MUST GO NOW, 
BUT HERE IS SOMETHING I WANT YOU TO 
READ. 

Blackman thanked her and his eyes followed her 
as she walked away, and as he proceeded to read 
the following poem appeared upon the screen : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 149 

We have gone to war for peace, 

To have mankind content, 
Peace forever — our aim — 

World disarmament. 
The Golden Rule will be our guide — 

Be the law of every nation, 
A United-World without a slave, 

There'll be no exploitation. 
There'll be no cruel eyes of scorn, 

No King, Czar, Sultan, Kaiser, 
But an equal chance for every child born 

And a strive to make all men wiser. 

When democracy is given birth 

Suppression will not be, 
Sorrows will turn to joys, 

All will have liberty. 
Parasites and leeches, 

And high-brows too, 
We will only see in history, 

When our dreams come true. 
Autocracy no longer known 

Nature's forces will be free, 
His dominating rule have flown, 

Right by might won't be. 

When the war is over 

And there's Peace on Earth at last, 
There'll be no hungry children, 

Nor the sweat-shops of the past. 
There'll be no exile's sighs and cries, 

No beggar's outstretched hands, 
All men will work and none will shirk, 

Nor live by gruff commands. 
When thrones have crumbled into dust 

We will know every man as a brother, 
LOVE will destroy all vice and lust, 

Every woman be a wife and a mother. 
— Nellie Martin 



150 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"Gee, but won't this be a grand old world to live 
in when her dream comes true?" asked Uncle How- 
ard, "When the Golden Rule will no longer be ca- 
mouflage, but will actually be the guide of mankind 
— every man seeking enlightenment and wanting his 
neighbor to know something as well; no slaves and 
no brutal masters, and men who are now holding 
down jobs will all go to work. It's a long way off 
but it will come. 

"We are so infinitely wise and yet so grossly 
ignorant that we imagine all things unknown to us 
are absurd and not worth knowing; we agree that 
we have been wrong, but insist it will be impossi- 
ble for us to ever be wrong again, yet we acknowl- 
edge by our own actions that we wish to change 
our opinions by our daily reading of books and 
magazines. We expect original and creative work 
for the benefit of the community from our fellow- 
man, and at the same time continually shackle him 
with all sorts of regulations. 

"The man whose activities in life are most ap- 
preciated, invariably has been the one who prac- 
ticed 'Barnumism , , while he whose ambitions are 
to enlighten and to contribute happiness to the race 
is not only ridiculed and persecuted, but exiled and 
executed; then after death sculptors carve his fig- 
ure from marble, while his name is written into 
literature, sung by poets and even adored by his 
very antagonists. Let a man perfect an invention 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 151 

for the improvement of the health of the race and 
unless it possesses an avenue through which money- 
mad demons might feather their nest with gold, it 
will go by default and he will be pierced with the 
arrows of society's sneers, but if he invents a new 
religion, a bodyguard will soon be required to keep 
the people from loving him to death. 

"The Money King is tottering on his throne, I 
know, but oh my, if men would only co-operate in 
civil life, and all be rivals for the common good, as 
they do upon the battle-field — break the shackles of 
mediaevalism, and mount the throne of brotherhood, 
life would be worth while. ,, 

"I would certainly hate to be as pessimistic as 
you are," slurred Ethel — "if there are so many in- 
justices in the world as you say there are, why don't 
you write a book about them?" 

"Well, I would rather be recognized as humanity's 
greatest lover, than to be adored for being the 
World's richest individual, and be known as the 
greatest pessimist than the meekest optimist; 
however, I expect neither," answered Uncle How- 
ard, "but as to writing a book, I would not even think 
of doing such a thing, and for many reasons. To 
market a book, you must be a college graduate or 
the 'authorities' who are all 'college-bred' men, will 
not indorse it; and then people would rather hear 
their echo than to hear something new, and before 
I will surrender to the clamor of the mob and ex- 



152 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

pound what I know to be unscientific, illogical and 
untrue I will crouch under a rock and live upon 
roots and nuts in the woods. To be pious and pray- 
erful carries great weight, but I refuse to practice 
deception and will never bow to our present ethical 
code, which I know to be slaughtering the moral 
fibre of mankind. 'When honeyed words prove to 
be but flattery, bitter memories result', but it takes 
a long time to show the ignorant masses that they 
are being flattered. If you want to get into trouble, 
offer to lead a blind man across the street. 

"Any man who writes a book upon social refor- 
mation is inviting the world to despise him. With- 
out agitation there can be no reform, but let some 
one else do it. Will any one dispute that Voltaire, 
more than any one thousand other men, inspired the 
French Revolution, and were not his bones burned 
in quicklime? Look at Bruno, who was tortured 
for nine years in a Roman inquisition and finally 
burned in a flower market; and remember of how 
all Catholic Europe praised God and blessed the 
pope for the massacre of the Huguenots, for which 
there has never been an apology from the church. 
Reform has always meant persecution. I was talk- 
ing to Clarence Darrow upon this subject recently, 
and when I asked him how long he thought it would 
be before the masses would realize that the blind- 
ness of vanity is responsible for their combating 
that which makes most for their physical and men- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 153 

tal well-being, he answered : 'The darned fool peo- 
ple are sound asleep and don't want to wake up\ 

"Optimism means impediment and procrastina- 
tion, and breeds stagnation and decay, while pes- 
simism promotes action and growth; the optimist 
says : America is the greatest country in the World, 
and the pessimist says : let's make it better. The 
opimist today spends much of his time watching 
parades, complimenting soldiers upon their good 
looks and declaring his patriotism, while the far- 
seeing pessimist spends his time inventing methods 
for producing greater efficiency — in finding the 
weak links in his country's chain of preparedness 
before the enemy does, and thus proving his patri- 
otism; the optimist says that his father's rules are 
good enough for him to live by and that tradition 
should be upheld, and thus bares the gates of prog- 
ress ; the pessimist opens the thoroughfare for both 
political and intellectual proficiency, only through 
which better conditions of society and the abolition 
of slavery of both mind and body can be brought 
about. Political corruption and moral desolation, 
which are strangling the ambition and crushing the 
very heart out of those who produce all the enjoy- 
able things of life and yet who are prevented from 
enjoying them, will finally surrender to the piercing 
arrows of criticism. We talk about the Dark Ages 
ending in the Twelfth Century — people two hundred 
years from now will have them recorded as ending 



154 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

in the twenty-first century. 

"My conversation here tonight is primarily for 
the benefit of Alice and Russell, but when it comes 
to educating the masses I wish to be excused. I 
have seen too much of Christian persecution to 
crave any of it for myself." 

Uncle Sam turned two more pages of history : 

FOUR MEATLESS DAYS PER WEEK 

— and 

PROHIBITION OF MANUFACTURE AND 
SALE OF EITHER BREWS OR DISTILLED 
LIQUORS. 

The man previously shown drinking up his week's 
wages and going home with practically an empty 
basket, was shown in front of the saloon (upon 
the door of which was a for rent sign) smiling 
broadly and gripping his pay-envelope as if he were 
saying: Tin mighty glad', and the interior of his 
home was now being shown just as he was entering 
with two baskets full of food-stuffs. The home was 
neatly decorated and very cozily furnished, and the 
children were romping with him and getting in his 
way so much that only for the assistance of his wife 
he would have been unable to get to the table with 
his load. After kissing her and the children, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 155 

each of whom strove for the first, he made his way 
to a chair with them frolicking about, riding astride 
his feet, etc. 

"Addressing an audience, congregated in the 
Garrick Theater, Chicago, upon the thirty-first day 
of last January, to celebrate the filing of a petition 
to make Chicago dry, a Catholic priest, the Rever- 
end Father Joseph McNamee, said something that 
struck me very funny," said Owen, as the scene 
faded out with all three of the children piled upon 
their happy father's lap, and the interior of the 
hospital was again shown — Nell handing Blackman 
some writing material and her fountain pen, for 
which he thanked her heartily — then proceeded to 
write, after his eyes followed her from the room; 
"he said that alcohol should be manufactured only 
for medical purposes, and for the preservation of 
sacraments in churches — put saloons out of busi- 
ness and allow churches to sell 'booze' !" 

"What are you talking about, man;" snapped 
Ethel, "administering the sacrament, selling liq- 
uor?" and smiling at her wrath, he answered: 
"Well, don't they always take up a collection 'to 
defray the expense of the sacrament' ?" 

"Next to religion, alcoholic liquor is man- 
kind's greatest curse," interrupted Uncle Howard, 
"and every step the church makes toward remov- 
ing the saloon is a step toward its own grave. 
When working men can no longer procure liquor 



156 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

with which they may befog their brains and cause 
them to forget their deplorable surroundings, their 
minds will become clear and they will soon be able 
to observe the fallacies of clergymen, and place 
them upon the vagrancy list as the worst kind of 
slackers — about one hundred eighty thousand of 
them in the United States, I believe, who are enjoy- 
ing rights which are contrary to the spirit of our 
Constitution — an Atheistic document, written by 
secularists who observed the degredation of Eu- 
ropean Christianity, and sought to provide our 
Country with a program, free from this Great Black 
Plague. Lincoln said that whatever any one man 
earns with his hands and with the sweat of his brow 
he should enjoy in peace and if one set of men had 
been intended to do all the work and none of the 
eating they would have had hands and no mouths, 
while if another set had been made to eat and not 
work they would have had mouths but no hands. 
He, therefore, concluded that hands and mouths are 
to be co-operative through life and are not to be 
interferred with. 

"Upon the twenty-eighth of last February, the 
Kentucky Legislature passed a law permitting liq- 
uor to be shipped only to drug stores and churches. 

"Last Summer I heard Dr. O'Neal of the Chicago 
Health Department say in a lecture that with all its 
years and years of research and hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars spent, 'Medical Science does not yet 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 157 

know why Delerium Tremens are always caused by 
distilled spirits and never by brews'. Some day 
when I have lots of time I will explain this to you 
and show you why they have not, and why they 
can never solve this very simple problem, by the 
methods they have always employed." 

After writing a short while, Blackman's letter 
(which was written upon three pages) was shown, 
and was as follows: 

Mr. J. C. Blackman, Sr., 
2749 Sheridan Road, 
Chicago, III. 

Dear Dad: — 

Your most welcome letter received several days 
ago, and am glad to know that all are well. I got 
too close to a Hissing -Jennie in my first battle and 
a piece of it took a hunk out of my leg, but am 
getting along fine and anxious to get back into line. 

And what do you think, Captain Carson has been 
advanced to Colonel. The boys all say that merit 
never ruled in civil life, but it sure does here — no 
political pull goes in the army. He is sure some 
man, and I don't care if he gets to be a General, it 
won't give him the swell-head one bit. He was in 
to see me the evening I was hurt and have had 
several notes from him since. I tell you it makes a 
fellow feel pretty good to have a friend like that 
after associating with booze-headed idiots and 
cigarette fiends all of my life. 

And best of all, my nurse is Radical Nell — the 
one I was telling you about in my other letter, and 
believe me I would give my right eye for her. Am 
enclosing her poem that I told you about, and be- 
lieve it will make you think a little too; and if ever 



158 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

you have an opportunity to meet her, and I sin- 
cerely hope you will have, am sure that she will 
show you that there are by far more honorable po- 
sitions in life than shoiving big dividends for cor- 
porations. I will give you a few samples of her 
phrases: "Any man who ivould put a hundred 
thousand dollars into a mansion while thousands 
of children are starving all around him, would be 
just as brutal to a wife after the "new" wore off; 
money should be more valuable as a medium of 
exchange than as a means of hoarding wealth; 
when the time arrives that the plastic minds of 
children are no longer shaped in antique moulds, 
and every man is given a scientific education, when 
integrity ceases to be adjudged according to bank 
accounts and tradition is cast into the dead past, 
our present system of social and political stag- 
nation, where congressmen are but "rubber 
stamps" for corporation will be regarded as canni- 
balism; then, there will be no poverty and million- 
aires, no charities, no wars; when women become 
intelligent enough to realize that the ever chang- 
ing styles of dress and other fancy togs are but 
inventions of pension- seeking leeches, learn that 
their stomachs are in the same place as man's and 
that their feet are the same shape as his, they will 
wear the same clothes that he is wearing — more 
sanitary, safer, and more comfortable; after this 
war is over the world will no longer be ruled by the 
dead hands of wolf-clawed demons with disinte- 
grated brains and their superstitious dupes, but it 
will be governed by thinkers, whose interests are 
in the welfare of all mankind." 

I could tell you a lot more of them that are just 
as logical, but will alloiv you to soak up these first. 
She's sure got my g*oat. 

Love to all and write soon, 

Claude. 
A. E. F., Via N. Y. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 159 

"We must remember that emotion and vanity 
are older than intelligence and reason, and that man 
could feel long before he began to think," said Uncle 
Howard, "but even if a man's mind was shaped ac- 
cording to the ethics of savages, he should now be 
old enough to do a little thinking. If he would ex- 
ert but one per cent of the effort he now utilizes in 
satisfying his appetite for tobacco, alcohol, religion, 
sex-gratification and duping others out of the profits 
of their toil, in developing his gray-matter along 
rational lines, Democracy would much sooner be 
realized. 

"There's one thing about a Catholic above men of 
other creeds that should command the admiration 
of Rationalists: when a Catholic gets his eyes open 
he always seeks revenge upon his stranglers by lay- 
ing the facts before his neighbor, while former sub- 
jects of other creeds, being too vain to admit they 
were wrong, simply leave the church and say noth- 
ing. 

"Congressmen will continue being 'rubber 
stamps' for corporations as long as we send them 
there for that purpose. The requirements of a Con- 
gressman are not: a scientist, a philosopher, or an 
intelligent man, a statesman, an economist, or an 
honest man — the only requirement is that he must 
be a good fellow" 

He then drew a bunch of papers from his coat 
pocket, from which he selected a typewritten sheet 



160 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

and handed it to Owen, saying (as Blackman pushed 
his bell-button, placed his letter and poem in the en- 
velope, and wrote the address while Nell was on her 
way to carry it to the mail box) : "Here's some- 
thing a friend handed me a few days ago that con- 
tains a lot of good food for thought. Read it over 
carefully, then give it to Russell. " 
It was as follows : 

DEMOCRACY'S TEN COMMANDMENTS 

V 

"First — Thou shalt not individually i»wn for 
profit, the crude or raw material things provided by 
Nature, such as lands, water, fuel, minerals, air, 
sunlight, electricity and other public necessities 
which all the public use. Those should be owned 
by all, collectively. 

"Second — Six days shalt thou labor at some use- 
ful occupation with head or hand. 

"Third — Thou shalt not steal from others the 
reward of their labor, by speculation, monopoly, in- 
terest, rents and profit. 

"Fourth — Thou shalt not worship profits as thy 
God (because to take profit is to receive values 
without returning an equivalent therefor) but thy 
God shall be Infinite Intelligence whose attributes 
are justice, wisdom and love. 

"Fifth — Thou shalt keep seven days of each 
week holy by dealing with thy fellow men and do- 
ing good. 

"Sixth — Thou shalt honor thy father and moth- 
er, also all men and women whose age exceeds sixty 
years by giving them government pensions that 
will make them comfortable the remaining years 
of their life. 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 161 

"Seventh — Thou shalt not require children to 
work in mines, factories, shops, or in any industry, 
but thou shalt send them to school where they may 
be well educated free of expense to them. 

"Eighth — Thou shalt promote and maintain the 
exercise of equal social, religious, and political 
rights and privileges of men and women alike. 

"Ninth — Thou shalt, thyself, have unrestricted 
liberty to enjoy such religion as your conscience 
approves, and thou shalt defend the right of all 
others to exercise the same privilege, and thou shalt 
favor and defend the people's right to freedom of 
speech, a free press, free assemblage, free schools, 
and religious liberty. 

"Tenth — Thou shalt favor the abolition of the 
competitive system of industrialism under which 
men, for profits, compete, contend, cheat, fight, and 
kill — a system that appeals to all that is crafty, 
greedy, selfish, unjust and dishonest in man, the 
legitimate fruits of which are extremes of riches 
and poverty, ignorance, squalor, injustice, crime, 
and war, the motto of which is, 'Might makes Right, 
to the victor belongs the spoils' — and thou shalt 
help to establish and maintain a co-operative com- 
monwealth the foundation stones of which are jus- 
tice, reciprocity, universal peace — a system of in- 
dustrialism which appeals to all that is just, and 
honest and kind and lofty in the human mind; 
the logical fruits of which are peace and goodwill 
to all mankind, and the motto of which is 'An in- 
jury to one is the concern of all'." 

— R. A. DAGUE. 

The scene shifted to the main entrance of the 
hospital, where several nurses were hustling about, 
and near the door of which Nell was depositing 



162 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Blackman's letter in a mail box; and just as she had 
turned and was about to enter a side door, Carson 
entered, walking very briskly and looking neither to 
the right nor to the left, but straight through the 
hallway. The instant Nell saw him her eyes fairly 
danced, and as he passed through the double doors 
leading to Blackman's ward, she ran upon her tip 
toes and stood peeping between them for a moment. 
Seeing that he had gone to Blackman's bed she ran 
back and into the room she was about to enter when 
he came in. 

The interior of this room was then shown (Alice 
said it was the "scrub-up room"). Nell, all in a 
frenzy, seemed to be searching her brain for an 
excuse to go to Blackman's bed. She first filled a 
glass with water, then poured it out, remembering 
that she had lately given him a drink, then she 
picked up a newspaper and again started for the 
door, only to turn and throw it down. It was quite 
laughable, indeed, but at the same time one cannot 
help feeling sorry for any one with a disposition like 
hers when something goes wrong for them. 

Suddenly she calmed down, filled a glass with wa- 
ter and left the room, as the scene shifted and 
showed Carson sitting upon the foot of Blackman's 
bed, both chatting merrily. 

Upon seeing Nell approaching, Blackman smiled 
broadly and stopped talking, which attracted Car- 
son's attention, and upon looking over his right 
shoulder he at once recognized her as being the nurse 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 163 

whose appearance had so pleased him upon his pre- 
vious visit. However, Nell nodded but did not speak 
as she passed, carrying the water to a patient several 
beds beyond; but upon her return she noticed that 
Blackman's paper had fallen upon the floor, and as 
she picked it up Carson said to Blackman : 

MR. BLACKMAN WHY DON'T YOU 
INTRODUCE YOUR NURSE? 

This pleased Nell very much, who quickly added : 

I THINK SO TOO, MR. BLACKMAN. 

After squirming restlessly for a moment, Black- 
man looked Carson squarely in the eyes and said : 

I THOUGHT YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU 
DIDN'T CARE ANYTHING ABOUT A WOMEN 

Nell looked very much surprised and Blackman 
grew more uneasy as Carson smiled and answered : 

YOU MISINTERPRETED WHAT I TOLD YOU 

As Nell looked easier, Blackman offered apology 
and managed to squeeze out a little smile, saying : 

WELL I CERTAINLY BEG THE PARDON OF 
BOTH OF YOU. MISS MARTIN THIS IS MY OLD 
FRIEND AND COMRADE, CAPTAIN CARSON, OR 
EXCUSE ME, IT IS NOW COLONEL CARSON- 
COLONEL CARSON YOU HAVE NO DOUBT 
HEARD OF THIS LADY MANY TIMES IN THE 
TRENCHES— THIS IS RADICAL NELL. 



164 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

As they shook hands and looked into each other's 
eyes most fondly, Blackman became very fidgety; 
however, this was not noticed by either of them and 
after Carson had talked for a moment another 
reader appeared: 



MY ADVANCE IN RANK WILL PERHAPS GAIN 
PRESTIGE FOR ME IN THE EYES OF SEVERAL 
NATIONS, BUT IT CONCERNS ME BUT LITTLE, 
AND I WILL REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE 
PREFIX AFTER THIS IS OYER— MISS MARTIN I 
CANNOT COMMAND WORDS THAT WILL EX- 
PRESS THE PLEASURE IT AFFORDS ME TO 
MEET YOU AND TO TALK WITH YOU. PRAISES 
FOR YOU ARE COMING FROM THE LIPS OF 
EVERY RED-BLOODED FOE OF AUTOCRACY 
THROUGHOUT THE CIVILIZED WORLD. 



Blackman, looking as if about mesmerized, stared 
into Carson's face, while Nell smiled broadly but not 
vainly, and nodded in appreciation. Looking at her 
and talking all the while, Carson took a package of 
letters, papers, etc., from his pocket from which he 
selected one, and again a reader appeared: 



UPON READING A COPY OF YOUR POEM A FEW 
DAYS AGO, ONE OF MY BOYS RECEIVED A SUG- 
GESTION AND WROTE ONE, AND AS ONE MUST 
EITHER HAVE A "HANDLE" UPON HIS NAME OR 
A POLITICAL PULL TO GET ANYTHING RA- 
TIONAL INTO THE NEWSPAPERS, HE HAS 
ASKED ME TO FORWARD IT TO ONE OF THEM. 
HE SAID THAT THE LARGER PERCENTAGE OF 
LIBERTY BONDS ARE NOW HELD BY POOR 
PEOPLE AND HE FEELS THAT THIS MAY AS- 
SIST MR. McADOO IN FLOATING THE NEXT IS- 
SUE BY "THAWING OUT" SOME OF "THE BET- 
ER CLASS". 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 165 

Nell was looking more pleased with Carson's ap- 
pearance every moment, while Blackman remained 
as still as death, and as she took the poem and start- 
ed reading, Carson resumed his seat upon the side of 
the bed. 

The poem, written with a lead pencil, was then 
shown : 



While we in blue and khaki 

With our flesh and brain do fight, 
To dethrone all brutal rulers 

Who contend that might is right; 
And kind nurses poise and patient, 

Dress our wounds and soothe our pain, 
Will you knit and farm and feed us, 

Or let us shiver and fight in vain? 

You call we conscripts slackers, 

And we've proved our loyalty; 
We'll fight and die for those we love — 

To bring them liberty. 
Uncle Sam will stand behind us 

You have told us from the start, 
But who will stand behind him, 

If you don't do your part? 

You are the shirk and slacker 

With your ruthless greed for gold, 
To exploit upon the needs of life — 

Your blood is yellow and cold. 
You wave the flag and shout to all: 

"We're sure of victory". 
But you squeeze those unearned dollars, 

Is that— DEMOCRACY? 

A Conscript 



166 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"That reminds me of a little verse by Jim Manee, 
I read last Fall/' said Uncle Howard. "I believe I 
can remember it: 

"The Big Biz class of men in town 

With patriotism roar, 
When sons of other men are called 

To risk their lives at war. 
They fly the flag of U. S. A. 

And cheer the moving ranks, 
And then, because they are too old, 

They prob'ly offer thanks. 
And when the nation sets a tax 

To get the war-need dollar, 
(They'll give up the other fellow's sons) 

But coin — Just hear them holler. 

"But you can rest assured that you will never see 
such a poem as that in a newspaper, and especially 
by an unknown author. Newspaper ethics require 
all writers to be 'reputable*. 

"Last Fall while visiting in Chicago, I was wait- 
ing for a car upon the corner of Randolph and Clark 
streets, one night, when a very sweet little girl with 
two men came out of Lamb's Cabaret, she so drunk 
that she could not stand alone. At this time the Ex- 
aminer was making a fight upon the cabarets, so I 
thought I would write the editor a letter, telling 
him about this and help the good work along; but 
the next morning when I attempted to write, my 
thoughts kept running to verse, so I wrote this 
(handing the following to Owen) , and when I pre- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 167 

sented it to the editor, instead of the usual 
'We're too crowded for space', he said that he didn't 
know whether I was telling the truth about the 
girl being drunk or not, so I took it over to the Daily 
News and received their 'We can't use it'. While 
reading it, don't forget to peep in between the lines, 
and no doubt you will see why newspapers refuse 
such material." 

The letter was : 

46 W. Huron St., Chicago, 111. 
November 2, 1917. 
Editor Chicago Examiner, 
(Voice of the people column) 

If this will open the eyes of hut one girl before it 
is too late, my time will have been well spent. 

Last night as I stood waiting 

For a car ' front of Lamb's Cabaret, 
I noticed two men and a maiden, 

As they beckoned a taxi their way; 
The girl's footsteps were not well guided, 

She was drunk — 'twas plain to be seen, 
She'd been seeing the sights of "gay life", 

She looked to be hardly sixteen. 
There's a mother's heart bleeding this morning, 

There's a little girl's soul full of pain, 
There's a daddy dear, with a regretful tear, 

Whose hopes are all blasted and in vain. 



168 THT BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

I boarded a car for North Clark Street, 

On which was a woman quite "stewed", 
She had a smile for every man that entered, 

Her neck and chest were quite nude. 
She had had many such nights since "the first step" 

She was a veteran of the wine-room all could see, 
She had seen "the bright lights" quite often — 

She had been on many a "spree", 
This morning she is "all in" and "dopey", 

Or perhaps she's having a fight — 
She's planning and scheming with cunning, 

Of how she'll catch a 'fish" tonight. 

I got off the car at Chicago, (Avenue) 

And there what did I behold? 
An old woman all "crippled" and forty 

She was hungry, and ragged and cold. 
She was begging for the price of a sandwich, 

She was watching each way for a cop, 
She wanted some "sinkers and coffee", 

She wanted a dime for a "flop", 
This morning her form is still shivering, 

As she lies in some dirty door-way, 
But nobody cares how soon she dies — 

The fruits of the cabaret. 

— Howard Judy 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 169 

As Nell finished reading the poem she handed it to 
Blackman, then looked at Carson saying : 

I LIKE IT VERY MUCH BUT IT WILL HAVE BUT 
LITTLE EFFECT UPON THEM: PROGRESS CAN 
COME ONLY FROM INELLECTUAL THINKING 
AND IT IS AS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THAT CLASS TO 
THINK RATIONALLY AS IT IS FOR A CLYDES- 
DALE TO TROT A MILE IN TWO MINUTES. 
THEIR BRAINS ARE NOT CONSTRUCTED FOR RA- 
TIONAL THINKING: BUT AFTER THIS THING IS 
OVER AND WHEN THE MAJORITY OF US WHO 
GO BACK AND DEMAND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP 
OF ALL PUBLIC UTILITIES AND THUS SHUT 
OFF THEIR PENSIONS— FORCE THEM TO GO TO 
WORK AND EARN THEIR OWN LIVING, I AM 
WONDERING ABOUT THE ANATOMICAL 
CHANGES THAT WILL TAKE PLACE I THEIR 
CRAMPED BRAINS. 

Carson smiled in appreciation, looking as if he 
was very much surprised at her deliverance, and 
taking out his watch said : 



IT HAS BEEN WELL SAID THAT YOU CAN LEAD 
AN ASS TO KNOWLEDGE BUT YOU CAN'T MAKE 
HIM THINK, BUT THE CHANGE THAT IS GOING 
TO TAKE PLACE IN THE WORLD'S SOCIAL AND 
ECONOMIC PROGRAM IS GOING TO DESTROY 
THIS OLD SAYING. I AM SORRY BUT I MUST GO 
NOW. 



As he rose, closing his watch, he shook hands with 
Blackman, wishing him well, then, turning to Nell 



170 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

he saw that she was preparing herself to walk with 
him to the door; and as their backs were turned 
(after Carson looked back the last time with a re- 
gretting good by and Nell with the wish-for-rapid- 
recovery smile of every good nurse) , Blackman, poor 
fellow, I felt so sorry for him, rolled and tumbled in 
a fit of jealousy. 

The scene shifted and they were shown standing 
in the hallway near the outside door, and after talk- 
ing a short while bade each other good by; but as 
they shook hands their finger tips seemed to stick 
together, and they stood looking at each other for a 
second, then Carson finally said: 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE DINNER WITH ME 
THIS EVENING? I CAN WIRE THE GENERAL 
THAT I HAVE BEEN DETAINED AND EVERY- 
THING WILL BE 0. K. WITH HIM 

Ethel allowed her enthusiasm to get away with 
her and almost shouted "goody", and the whole 
house enjoyed a hearty laugh, while Nell, looking 
much pleased, answered: 

I WILL BE VERY MUCH PLEASED TO DO SO 
INDEED— I CAN BE READY AT SEVEN THIRTY 

The scene closed as Carson hurried away. 

"I wonder if he thinks he has found his affinity ?" 
suggested Alice, which took Ethel clear off her feet, 
and as she covered her mouth with her handkerchief 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 171 

Uncle Howard answered: 

"When the time arrives that young men will be 
more attracted by a well-shaped head than by pretty 
ankles, and young women prefer intelligence to piety, 
divorce courts will go by default;" then turning to 
Ethel he continued: "and if you will consult your 
dictionary a few moments you will find that 'affinity' 
means something entirely different from what a good 
many high society people spend much of their time 
thinking about. Then you will no longer be so hu- 
miliated upon hearing the word ;" and turning again 
to Alice he went on: "there's nothing supernatural 
about the achievements of any man; they are, as I 
said before, the pursuits of a well-mated ancestry." 

Nell and Carson were then shown, entering a neat 
but not luxurious restaurant, where they were es- 
corted to a table, and after being comfortably seated 
proceeded to order their suppers. 

After looking over the menu for a short while, 
Nell gave her order and Carson immediately pro- 
tested, after which a reader appeared : 

WON'T YOU HAVE MORE THAN THAT— WHY 
DON'T YOU HAVE A NICE STEAK? 

Nell laughed and answered him : 

THAT IS PLENTY I THANK YOU; AND FURTHER- 
MORE I NEVER EAT MEAT— I AM A STRICT 
VEGETARIAN 



172 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Carson jumped to his feet and grabbed her by the 
hand with both of his, saying : 

* 

HURRAH FOR YOU LITTLE GIRL, I'VE GOT THE 
SAME AILMENT 

"I noticed an inquiry about vegetarianism in the 
Chicago Herald last Winter, and Miss Beatrice Fair- 
fax answered that it is a disease where those 
afflicted always check their appetites with their hats 
at the door," whispered Owen, as Carson apologized 
to the waitress for his foolishness and the unneces- 
sary delay. 

"Well, if Miss Fairfax wrote that it must be true," 
answered Uncle Howard. "I have read quite a bit 
of her material and I am confident she is sure she 
knows." 

Proceeding with the conversation Nell said : 

MY OBSERVATIONS HAVE LED ME TO BELIEVE 
THAT MEN WHO ARE CARNIVOROUS IN THEIR 
EATING ARE CARNIVOROUS AND IRRITABLE IN 
THEIR DISPOSITIONS AND THAT THE GREAT- 
EST DISEASE EXISTING— SELFISHNESS IS DI- 
RECTLY TRIBUTARY TO THIS CAUSE. I BE- 
LIEVE THAT OUR THOUGHTS AND ACTION'S 
ARE GOVERNED AS MUCH BY THE QUALITY OF 
THE FOODS WE CONSUME AS THEY ARE BY 
OUR ENVIRONMENT. THAT IS: IF WE EAT 
PURE FOODS WE THINK PURE THOUGHTS 
AND VICE VERSA 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 173 

Carson smiled in appreciation and answered, 
saying : 



I THANK YOU VERY MUCH, BUT SERIOUSLY 
SPEAKING, THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS VERY EASY 
FOR ANY ONE WHO WISHES TO FIND IT. "THE 
CANNIBAL," SAYS DR. BUTTNER, "IS SO SUPER- 
STITIOUS THAT HE BELIEVES HE CAN EMBIBE 
THE VIRTUES OF HIS ENEMY BY EATING HIS 
HEART AND DRINKING HIS BLOOD— THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY MAN IS SO SUPERSTI- 
TIOUS THAT HE THINKS HE GETS THE 
STRENGTH OF THE BULL BY EATING HIS 
FLESH". 



"Before the war began, the annual consumption 
of pork in Germany was three hundred and thirty- 
two hogs per thousand persons, as against sixty- 
three per thousand in England," said Uncle Howard, 
and went on as the waitress entered with their sup- 
pers: "Alfred W. McCann says: 'Meat is not 
wholly a godsend to the man who eats much of it for 
the reason that it is deficient in the mineral salts 
which the body requires. In consequence, he who 
eats meat to excess is plagued with rheumatism, 
asthma and corpulency and is sent to the mineral 
springs in order that he may drink water containing 
calcium, magnesium, and sodium sulphate. Calcium, 
assisted by phosphorus, magnesium, silica and fluo- 
rine, builds up our bones and teeth'. 

"Less than three per cent of our children have 



174 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

sound teeth, and when the authorities tell us that it 
is caused from unused tooth brushes, most of us be- 
lieve them, never questioning that it may, be from 
lack of raw materials in their food-stuffs; also, the 
majority of us unobserve the ever-increasing num- 
ber of cases of rickets, bow-legs, broken arches and 
other bone disease." 

As the waitress arranged the food upon the table, 
Carson made several remarks to her, seemingly of a 
teasing nature, while Nell carefully surveyed every 
expression. When coffee was placed before them 
both refused, which surprised Nell very much, and a 
reader appeared : 

WHAT— DON'T YOU DRINK COFFEE, EITHER? 
Carson answered: 



NATURE PROVIDED WATER FOR MAN AS WELL 
AS FOR ALL OTHER ANIMALS, AND IF HE 
WOULD DRINK NOTHING ELSE HE MIGHT BE 
AS HEALTHY AS THEY ARE. COFFEE, TEA, 
COCOA AND ALL KINDRED DRINKS ARE BUT 
SLIGHTLY MILDER IN THEIR ACTION THAN 
TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL 



Both then ordered water and chatted away, but it 
was not long until they were very much disturbed. 
Two gay looking lads came in and were seated just 
behind them and soon a fog of cigarette smoke was 
encircling their heads, and the scene faded out as 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 175 

Carson was tapping one of them upon the shoulder. 
From the expression upon their faces I am sure that 
the smoking ceased. 

They were next shown entering the hospital (at 
night time) upon their tip toes, and after whispering 
a short while they proceeded to say good by, but as 
they shook hands their fingers again hung together 
like two magnets. NelPs eyes were pleading and 
Carson was feeling badly, and as their eyes met they 
sprang into each other's arms — embracing passion- 
ately for a moment ; then, raising her chin with one 
hand, he kissed her, and the scene faded out as he 
left the room, while Nell was crying hysterically. 

Uncle Sam turned a page of history, showing : 

CAUSE OF WAR DETERMINED 

and then another, showing: 

SELFISHNESS 
and still another: 

CAUSE OF SELFISHNESS DETERMINED 

and when this page was turned, a full page of read- 
ing material was shown: 



176 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 



MALNUTRITION 

Since it has been found, after extensive re- 
search by able and scientific, rational-thinking 
men, whose observations are based upon logic — 
cause and effect, whose minds have abrogated from 
all other myths of antiquity and whose visions have 
never been impaired by the glitter of gold, that 
meat embodies no substances vital to the nutrition 
of man of which he cannot avail himself from plants 
directly; while on the other hand it contains ex- 
creta — fecal matter, urine, perspiration, etc., due 
to natural catabolism as well as substances decayed 
after death, which neutralizes the great pugnacious- 
to-disease vitimines and minerals present in plants, 
and thereby fosters disease and misery. Therefore 
all are urged to eat the wheat and corn and other 
cereals, and thereby manufacture their own beef- 
steaks, thus saving much of the now wasted energy, 
as well as preserving health. Thus eating, it is be- 
lieved that human mothers will soon become 
healthy, and provide their babies with an abund- 
ance of Nature's fluid, as does every other mammal; 
and finally, for lack of economic contribution to the 
welfare of mankind, all useless animals will be- 
come extinct. 

Prices of all food-stuffs will hereafter be based 
upon their nutritive value in preference to their 
beauty. 

"Because the Koran was believed to contain all 
the knowledge the World needed," said Uncle How- 
ard, "Omar ordered the destruction of the great 
Alexandrian Library, and many of our teachers in 
dietetics, believing that if there had been any virtue 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 177 

in these minerals, vitimines, etc., God would not 
have left them out of the Bible, pay no attention to 
them, and go on with their old yow-yow about the 
importance of protein. The majority of them are 
but mental canning factories, and the people at large 
are the cans wherein they preserve the propaganda 
of our food trusts. I attended that 'Patriotic Food 
Show' in Chicago last winter, and it was a shame 
and a pity the way these exploiting knaves dished 
out their filthy lies in the name of science. 'There's 
no flaw in God's record', says our modern evangelist, 
'and we must not dispute his word'/' 

"You have spoken of 'our modern evangelist' sev- 
eral times, do you mean Mr. Sunday?" inquired 
Ethel. 

"Yes, I mean Billy Sunday, the greatest humbug 
the world ever knew," he answered. 

"Oh, my, I am so surprised to hear you speak of 
him that way; why he is praised by the Protestant 
churches all over the whole world, and when he was 
in Chicago he was invited into the very best homes/' 
she insisted. 

"Yes, he is praised by all Christianity, and to hear 
him is to hear an honest acknowledgment that the 
Church is on pretty thin ice. He visited the homes 
of millionaires 'tis true, but he never went down 
back of the Stock Yards, where people are liv- 
ing like hogs and children are dying like sheep 
with the rot-foot. Why is he such a good friend 



178 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

to John Wanamaker, S. S. Kresge, Marshall Field 
& Co., J. Ogden Armour, and thousands of other 
such autocrats? The answer is easy: when their 
slaves get their minds filled with his divine 
chloroform their only ambition is to sneak into 
the back door of the New Jerusalem, and they 
say no more about low wages and high cost of living. 
'Blessed be ye poor: for your's is the kingdom of 
God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall 
be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall 
laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, 
and when they shall separate you from their com- 
pany, and shall reproach you, and cast out your 
name as evil, for the son of man's sake. Rejoice ye 
in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold your re- 
ward is great in Heaven'. Fine logic, eh? 

" 'If you want to approach Mr. Rockefeller/ says 
Fred Kelly, in the December (1917) issue of the 
American Magazine, 'tell him what a power for good 
he is in his church and Sunday School, and he will 
become cordial immediately/ and why has Henry 
Ford a preacher at the head of his waif are depart- 
ment? ■ |^FH 

"I heard Billy Sunday in Chicago, praying for God 
to 'dissolve the clouds as ice dissolves in the sum- 
mer seas so we can see the smiling face of Jesus 
through the clear sky', but he never asked his God 
to see that livable wages are paid working girls so 
they will no longer be forced into the usual rendez- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 179 

vous — the cabaret, where they may contract the sale 
of their souls to buy the necessities of life and where 
they enveil their minds with liquor so they might 
forget. Instead of always praying for mercy, why 
doesn't he pray for justice occasionally, and acknowl- 
edge the truth about the cause of brothels instead of 
saying: 'Evolution is the blame'? The cabaret is 
the halfway house between the sweat-shop and the 
brothel and is thus essential to large dividend seek- 
ing corporations." 

"Well, I'd certainly be afraid to say some of the 
things that you do even if I did think them," went 
on Ethel. 

"Afraid, afraid of what? 'If a man holding a be- 
lief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded 
of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any 
doubts which arise about it in his mind; purposely 
avoids the reading of books and the company of men 
that call in question and discuss it — the life of that 
man is one long sin against mankind/ says W. K. 
Clifford; but when this man recalls the procession 
ordered by Gregory XIII. , which went about the 
streets of Rome, chanting praises to God for the 
massacre of the heretics, and when he hears Billy 
Sunday — the mouthpiece of God and of Twentieth 
Century Christianity, damning every man who re- 
jects the lies of Moses and accepts the truths of Dar- 
win — knowing that if he had the power he would 
today enjoy organizing and leading such a parade 



180 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

about the streets of Washington, thrilled by the 
strains of a slide trombone and singing : Traise God, 
From Whom All Blessings Flow*; and 'when this 
man knows that his job would be unsafe should his 
employer even suspicion he was entertaining disbe- 
lief he dares not think, but I don't see any strings on 
you. 

"The scientific or Darwinian theory is less than 
seventy years old, it has never been maintained by 
violence, and yet it is lauded by every intelligent man 
in the World, while Christian theology, or the Moses 
doctrine is several thousand years old, is responsible 
for the spilling of the blood of millions, and is 
praised by the most ignorant men living. The more 
ignorant a man is, the more absurdities he can be- 
lieve and infallably the more religious he is. 

"Billy says that Hell is a place where all scientists 
spend Eternity — men who disputed the priests and 
dissolved the fairy tale — the Adam and Eve rib 
story, even in the minds of most of our modern cler- 
gymen ; the men who made the stories of Jonah and 
the whale, the Earth being flat, Samson and the lion, 
Jesus walking upon the water, and a thousand other 
such silly beliefs, disappear like fog before the mid- 
day sun ; men who disposed of tom-toms and supple- 
mented surgery; men who displaced prayer-books 
with text-books, and chanting nuns with alert school 
teachers; men who would disallow church property 
to remain untaxed which indirectly forces unbeliev- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 181 

ers to support the church — camouflaged State sup- 
port which is directly contrary to the first amend- 
ment of the Constitution; and especially those who 
would no longer tolerate poisoning the trusting 
minds of innocent children by soft-handed and eal- 
loused-hearted priests and preachers whose only am- 
bition is to make cowards of them. 

" 'Belief in the devil makes man superstitious, 
melancholy, cowardly and cruel/ says Mangasarian, 
'and by paralyzing both mind and body, fear de- 
prives us of the ability to defend ourselves, and 
when we cannot defend ourselves, we become the 
sport of political and religious scarecrows'. 

"Heaven, according to Mr. Sunday, is a place 
where a few pious and prayerful souls spend Eter- 
nity. He says: 'There won't be enough men there 
to get up a good chorus, preachers included — many 
are called but few are chosen'. Lincoln said that if 
belief in the horrible doctrine of eternal torments, 
which most church members still profess, were true, 
no one could take the time to attend to anything else 
in life but remain praying on his knees from the 
cradle to the grave." 

Whenever Uncle Howard gets started to talking 
religion to any one who has never heard anything 
against it, there is no let up until his victim either 
yields or gets mad, and it is usually the latter, as he 
says that is how the most of us have been taught to 
acknowledge defeat. 



182 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

During this little lecture several scenes were 
shown of both our and our allies' lines of prepared- 
ness upon the eve of the decisive battle. Cong lines 
of aeroplanes, including flying tanks and air 
ambulances, and scores of land tanks ready 
for action, as well as long trains of ammunition 
trucks, huge guns in position and hundreds of thou- 
sands of machine guns ready; but most interesting 
of all was the demonstration of an electrical appa- 
ratus which played the greater part in the final bat- 
tle. 

An aeroplane dropped a large amount of some sort 
of fine metallic substance, which Was so fine that it 
could not be seen but a few seconds after being re- 
leased. Several men and a number of horses and 
mules were shown in the vicinity of where this 
metal had been strewn, and when long and fearful 
sparks began leaping from a tall tower (which Owen 
later said very much resembled Telsa's tower at 
Shoreham, Long Island, which was built several 
years ago for electrical experimenting) these men 
and animals commenced dancing and jumping about 
as if they were very much in distress and semi- 
paralyzed. 

I have read of men metallically coating seeds be- 
fore planting, then driving a high frequency cur- 
rent into them and later into the roots of the plants, 
both by stretching wires over the field and by em- 
bedding elecrodes about six inches deep on two 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 183 

(parallel) sides of the field, and thereby forcing a 
much larger crop yield, but this scheme was entirely 
new to me. 

Although he saw everything that was going on all 
the while, Uncle Howard kept up his bombardment 
upon Ethel without a stop. He went on: 

"The shameless slaughtering of the Belgians was 
nothing new in the history of Christendom — it is 
the same old feud between Luther and Constantine, 
to a marked degree. Upon his deathbed in 1546, 
Martin Luther reminded those about him that he 
had conquered three popes, a king and an emperor, 
and now his apostle, Wilhelm, is attempting to 
crush, not only the Vatican, but all the other fifty- 
seven varieties of Christians throughout the World. 
He once said to a relative who had joined the Catho- 
lic Church : 'You have embraced this Roman super- 
stition whose destruction I consider the aim of my 
life'. 

"The pope knows all about this, you can rest as- 
sured, and his reasons for remaining quiet are very 
transparent. 

"The Kaiser has made a goat of Austria from the 
start, and the pope knows that, too. Instead of 
writing so many empty phrased 'notes' begging the 
Kaiser to 'spare the historic bells of Belgium' and 
'save the arts of Venice', why doesn't he plead for 
the helpless women and children? 

"I would rather, by far, see all the arts and bells 



184 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

in the World crumbled to dust than to see one single 
life blotted out. I say, down with them — both the 
pope and the Kaiser — down with the 'gods of 
Buddah and Mohammed, of Brahma and Confu- 
cius — down with the piteous cries of the priest- 
ridden Hindoo, begging for the mercy of his savior : 
Chrishna Jeseus, and the wails of disappointed men 
and women of Christendom who daily plead in an- 
guish to their savior: Jesus Christ — down with all 
religion and up with humanity and righteousness, 
love and honor, justice and truth. Until man awak- 
ens from this traditional drunkenness — this intel- 
lectual anaesthetic which was choked down him in 
childhood, Democracy can never exist. Men of all 
the politically allied creeds, now fighting in Europe, 
will eat and sleep, play and work, fight and die to- 
gether as if they were brothers, but the moment 
religion is mentioned the wolf returns — at heart 
they are the bitterest of enemies and ready to jump 
at each other's throat. Religion, like the veriform 
appendix is vestigal, and the sooner mankind is rid 
of it the better off he will be — with true Democracy, 
religion will have no function to perform." 

The great battle was now raging in full sway, 
with Blackman (walking with a stiff knee) and Car- 
son in the midst of it and as calm as if no danger 
were near. The air was full of bursting shells and 
high above, the aeroplanes were thicker than black- 
birds in November, while the orchestra seemed to 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 185 

be making a hundred different noises at the same 
time, and yet Uncle Howard talked on ; but when the 
great streaks of artificial lightning came leaping 
from several of these gigantic towers and in the dis- 
tance: mercy! mercy! kamerad! kamerad! ap- 
peared in large words over the scene, he stopped 
talking like a shot. 

The scene shifted and showed great piles of Ger- 
man soldiers writhing and tumbling helplessly, with 
this lightning still leaping over them. 

Then the power was turned off and as the smoke 
cleared away the frightened Germans regained their 
feet, and, waving their handkerchiefs high above 
their heads, ran into the arms of our boys and 
hugged them as they would their own mothers. 

A large bonfire was then started and as the Kaiser 
was being burned in effigy, they tore off their hated 
uniforms and hats, and piled them upon the fire 
also. 

The scene shifted and showed the Despot again 
praying upon his knees as the mob rushed upon him, 
dragging him to the river, where they threw him in, 
and as he was trying to swim ashore women and 
children punched him with sticks and spat in his 
face, while the audience was going mad with joy. 
But when the scene returned to the bonfire, and the 
form of Karl Liebnecht arose from the embers and 
was carried upon the shoulders of the cheering Ger- 
mans and presented to Carson, every one in the 



186 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

house, it seemed, stood upon their seats and yelled 
themselves hoarse. 

"The German people are going to tear loose some 
of these days with a revolution that will shake the 
jewels from the Kaiser's crown for all time,'' said 
Uncle Howard, as the scene faded out and the people 
again quieted down, "and all the Kaiser's prayers as 
well as those of his state-paid preachers will cease to 
be heard. Did you ever read the oath a preacher 
must take before he can preach in Germany ? I have 
read it so many times that I have memorized it, so 
I will give it to you : 

" 'I will be submissive, faithful and obedient to 
his Royal Majestey, — and his lawful successors in 
the government, — as my most gracious King and 
Sovereign; promote his welfare according to my 
ability; prevent injury and detriment to him; and 
particularly endeavor carefully to cultivate in the 
minds of the people under my care a sense of rever- 
ence and fidelity towards the King, love for the Fa- 
therland, obedience to the laws, and all those virtues 
which in a Christian denote a good citizen; and I 
will not suffer any man to teach or act in a contrary 
spirit. In particular I vow that I will not support 
any society or association, either at home or abroad, 
which might endanger the public security, and will 
inform His Majesty of any proposal made, either in 
my diocese or elsewhere, which might prove injuri- 
ous to the State. I will preach the word as His Gra- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 187 

cious Majesty dictates'. Take religion out of Ger- 
many or any other monarchy, and the king will go 
with it — monarchy could no more live out of dog- 
matism than a fish could live out of water. Dogma- 
tism demands sacrifice, and innocent blood has ever 
been perfume to it, and there will be wars as long 
as it shall haunt the brain of man. One man's am- 
bition — twelve million dead right under the nose of a 
blind, deaf and dumb God to whom our own people 
are bowing and praying, making holidays, and ceas- 
ing work; why I sometimes think that the whole 
world has gone crazy." 

"What, and don't you believe in prayer?" asked 
Ethel, as the Statue of Liberty was shown in the dis- 
tance with our boys coming home, and after joyful 
scenes of their return from the front in France, 
their embarkation, etc., had been shown. 

"I do not, and neither does any other man who 
does not believe in miracles. Every person who 
prays either does it for prestige or in belief that his 
wishes will be granted, therefore, no one who prays 
sincerely is justified in contradicting the Kaiser for 
contending that his prayers are being answered. 
Americans will pray in sympathy for the German 
people one minute and curse them the next for their 
stupideous refusal to dethrone the Kaiser, and at the 
same time they will refuse to entertain a single 
thought that the same iron claw is clutching them 
in the slightest modified form. The German people 



188 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

have been taught that if they are but permitted to 
look upon the Kaiser, they will live ten years longer, 
and that it will insure them a high place in Heaven. 

"The Christian religion has propagated a race in- 
tellectually antique, it appeals to the lowest things 
in man and makes a coward of him. Fear of hell 
only, keeps the church pews filled, and if the church 
could continue spreading its germs of mental paraly- 
sis unhampered, Democracy could never exist. Men 
are afraid to rely upon their own resources and to 
dethrone this superstition. 

"Most of the universities were for many years 
under the absolute jurisdiction of clergymen, but a 
few years ago the germ of Rationalism crawled 
through a knot-hole somewhere and started propa- 
gating, and ever since that time, their serum, which 
is made from the blood of the lamb, doesn't take 
as it used to, and the same thing is going to happen 
some of these days with the system that is dictating 
the program for our common schools. 

"No, little girl, you will see that this war will be 
won by powder and not by prayer, by soldiers and 
not by preachers, by the science of reason and facts, 
and not by the myths of Christianity. 'Our priests 
are not at all what foolish people think; our cre- 
dulity comprise their entire science', says Voltare." 

A dozen or more transports, swarming with cheer- 
ing soldiers, and with tug-boats working like bees 
to get them to their resting places in New York Har- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 189 

bor were now being shown, while hundreds of thou- 
sands of overjoyed men, women and children lined 
the shore; and as the first one swung into her pier, 
Nell, Carson, and Blackman were standing on the 
bridge. 

Blackman's parents were waiting near the ropes 
and as he fell into his laughing and weeping moth- 
er's arms (who in turn likewise embraced Nell), his 
father, not waiting for an introduction, leaped upon 
Carson shaking his hand and weeping, both in shame 
for the way he had previously treated him, and for 
joy for making a gentleman of his no-account boy; 
and it was really laughable, although I think every- 
body in the house was crying, to see the look young 
Blackman gave his father as he waited a moment 
for his greeting. 

Then as they made their way through the crowd 
to the street we were very much surprised to see 
President Wilson standing in an automobile bowing 
right and left to the crowd and then greet them a 
hearty welcome; and as his car rolled away, with 
Nell seated at his side and Mrs. Wilson and Mr. and 
Mrs Blackman facing them, the scene faded out. 

"If the President hadn't put a ban on Billy Sun- 
day going to France and an average film producer 
had made this, I suppose he would have been pic- 
tured as the hero, but if I had been the producer I 
would have had Uncle Sam display the President's 
act upon one page of the U. S. History, for it was 



190 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

sure a great step for progress," whispered Uncle 
Howard as the soldiers, led by the President's party, 
were shown marching down the streets of New York, 
and being cheered by many thousands. 

The interior of the La Salle Street Station, Chi- 
cago (Owen said it was) was next shown, as the 
first troop train was arriving home — the Carson- 
Blackman party being quite conspicuous in the 
crowd of frantic soldiers, parents, sisters and sweet- 
hearts. 

Another parade was then shown, the boys march- 
ing as in New York, and being led by the Blackman 
automobile, while the sidewalks and windows were 
jammed with enthusiastic spectators, yelling 
through megaphones, blowing horns, throwing con- 
fetti, and waving flags. 

"Well, I have seen many moving pictures, a few 
of which were really worth looking at, but this one 
is certainly a world beater," said Owen, as Carson 
and Nell were shown to be getting married by a 
judge and in a court room, with all the Blackmans 
as witnesses, and as Ethel was putting on her hat. 

"What's gone wrong with you all of a sudden?" 
inquired Uncle Howard, as the senior Mr. Blackman, 
with several other men were shown tearing down 
the steel fence from around their mansion, and 
while the wife and son stood looking on. 

"Well, who in the dickens ever heard of such a 
crazy stunt as this? Why, it is strictly against the 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 191 

ethics of moving pictures — there are only two proper 
ways for them to end, one is : the leading characters 
get married, and the other is for one of them to 
die," she answered, but when the interior of the 
same school room previously shown where the chil- 
dren without money were forced to go without food, 
was again shown, with a very neat lady seeing that 
every child was given all it wanted to eat, she took 
off her hat and calmed down. To be frank about it, 
I thought the end was near, too, but I didn't get 
angry over it. 

Uncle Sam then turned a page of history, showing 
another full page of reading material: 



192 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF 
ALL PUBLIC UTILITIES 

Inasmuch as the members of the medical pro- 
fession showed greater efficiency, by far, during the 
war while in the employ of the Government and 
while being paid according to their merits — paid 
for making and keeping men well as has long been 
practiced among Oriental tribes — making strong 
soldiers from sick civilians, while in civil life their 
incomes depended upon keeping men sick, the 
Government has confiscated all hospitals, and has 
placed all doctors and nurses in the employ of the 
state; and, as policemen, firemen, letter carriers, 
etc., they will now be at the service of the public 
— competition relinquished to co-operation. All 
the science that heretofore directed its entire at- 
tention to devising means for the elimination of 
the race, will hereafter devote its energies to pro- 
viding more healthful modes of living, more hap- 
piness and longer lives; the effects of disease will 
no longer be attacked but the causes will be re- 
moved; no white flour, wheat blending, and wheat 
scouring, no more polishing rice, embalming foods, 
no anemic crackers, chalky cookies, sulphurized 
foods, manufacturing "pure" maple syrup from 
cobs, etc. 

"Visit a dental college and while you are observ- 
ing the long lines of men, women and children wait- 
ing for free treatment, think of what a small per- 
centage of our poor population are able to visit such 
places, and of how hundreds of thousands of 
them suffer with toothache for many years and 
until their teeth rot out. Think of the sweetest little 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 193 

girl you know, crying with the toothache while the 
dentist is right in the same block and yet your hands 
are tied and you cannot help her, and if there is one 
speck of sympathy in your heart I believe you will 
agree that State-paid preachers are not as essential 
to the welfare of the race as are State-paid doctors 
and dentists," went on Uncle Howard. 

"What do you think," interrupted Alice, "Dr. 
Miller, the one who operated on Russell when I first 
went to the hospital, operated on a woman about a 
month ago for appendicitis, when he knew that Dr. 
Edwards had taken it out over a year ago ; and when 
she awoke she wanted to see it, so he came into the 
sterilizing room, and told Miss Shafer to take it in 
to her, and when Miss Shafer said : 'Why, Dr. Miller 
you know just as well as I do that that thing you 
took out is not her appendix', he said : 'Well, we've 
got to show her one, so get one and take it in to her 
anyway', and she had to do it, too ; and it sure kicked 
up a rumpus around there for a while." 

"Did you ever hear the word 'mum' around the 
hospital?" he answered. 

"Oh, sure, the ethics are to always keep your 
mouth shut about what goes on, but I know you 
won't tell it." 

"I presume Dr. Miller is a very religious man and 
believes in his God, does he not?" he went on. 

"For goodness sakes, man, and don't you believe 
in God, either?" asked Ethel. 



194 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

"Well, you poor little boob, aren't you ever going 
to wake up; how much talking does a man have to 
do to convince you that two plus two make four?" 

"I'm not a boob, I thank you, sir ; I'm a city lady." 

"Ha, ha, that's no exemption ; let me tell you that 
some of the biggest boobs in the world live in cities. 
Well then, what god are you talking about?" 

"Why, our God, of course; there isn't but one 
God." 

"Did you ever read the Ten Commandments, and 
does not the first acknowledge the presence of more 
than one God ? No, I do not believe in gods any more 
than I believe in devils or dragons, in spooks and 
ghosts, or in fairies and witches. All the gods that 
exist are in the parts of our brain that have not yet 
evolved from savagery, the particular thing the 
clergy has always stood in the way of ; or, as it has 
been well put : 'God is a relic of savage superstition'. 
If there is a good God who is our father, why did he 
not teach us — his children, to be loving and kind, 
instead of hating and killing each other ? Why were 
not the original manuscripts preserved whereby the- 
ologians might prove the accuracy of their Bible. 
Why has the Bible been revised so many times, and 
which edition is correct, and when the British Par- 
liament in 1850 sent a delegation to examine the 
Sacred Books of India, to find whether the accusa- 
tion that the New Testament of the Christian Bible 
had largely been copied from the Ramazand of the 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 195 

Hindoos was false or true, why were their volumi- 
nous reports so mutilated while being conveyed back 
to England by the Christian Bishop of Calcutta, that 
their truths were rendered unintelligible? 

"The Kaiser's claim of daily revelation from God 
is as logical and as true as the stories of Joseph 
Smith and his plates of gold, Mohammed and his 
cave, or Moses and his tables of stone — they were 
every one invented for the same purpose: the sub- 
jection of the exploited class. 

"The miraculous conception of Christ and Chrish- 
na, whose lives are almost a parallel, any anatomist 
knows is false, and the story your catechism teaches 
little children about Jesus appointing the pope, 
every historian knows is untrue, as the Catholic 
Church was not founded until the year 313. If the 
Church was not afraid and was not conscious of its 
weak foundation, it would not force its nostrums 
into the minds of children and tell them things its 
leaders cannot explain — teach them to act like sav- 
ages instead of rising to a more sublime intellectual 
state. Then it says that every man is free to choose 
his own religion. 'How can we conceive of a God', 
says Voltare, 'the embodiment of goodness, who lav- 
ishes his benefits upon his children whom he loves, 
and at the same time overwhelms them with the evil 
things of life — what eye can penetrate such pro- 
found designs? To deny thy supreme being, Great 
God, is less blasphemous, less deserving of thy wrath, 



196 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

than to believe thee pitiless, deaf to our woes, jeal- 
ous and unjust even as we ourselves are. It is to him 
who masters our minds by force of truth, not to those 
who enslave men by violence ; it is to him who under- 
stands the Universe, not to those who disfigure it, 
that we owe our reverence'." 

Uncle Sam turned another page of History show- 
ing: 

TOBACCO CULTIVATION PROHIBITED— 
1,400,000 ACRES OF FILTH-PRODUCING 
LANDS TRANSFORMED INTO FOOD-PRO- 
DUCING SOIL 

and then another showing : 

PROFICIENT AGRICULTURAL TEACHER 
AND SOIL CHEMIST PLACED IN EVERY 
TOWNSHIP— DEFICIENT ELEMENTS OF 
SOIL PROVIDED FROM NATURAL 
SOURCES AT COST OF HANDLING— IM- 
POVERISHED SOIL PRODUCED IMPOVER- 
ISHED FOODS, AND IMPOVERISHED 
FOODS PRODUCED UNHEALTHFUL BOD- 
IES AND SHORT LIVES, IMPAIRED IN- 
TELLECTS AND SLUGGISH AMBITIONS. 
THE SUCCESS OF ANY RACE DEPENDS 
UPON THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 
WHEREON ITS FOODS ARE PRODUCED 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 197 

Poor Ethel was looking like a lost child, and in a 
way I couldn't help feeling sorry for her, for I knew 
that her stupidity was the product of her environ- 
ment, but I knew how much better off she would be 
and how much she would appreciate it all when she 
finally did wake up; and without a brake, Uncle 
Howard kept on : 

4 * When we see crime increasing day by day, men 
growing to hate each other more and more, and 
when we observe the effects of the inefficiency of 
our doctors who have held our lives in their hands 
and made playthings of them ever since the church 
has deprived us of our thinking faculty, we should 
cease to be optimists, wipe the cob-Webs from our 
eyes and tear off their masks. The average farmer 
like the city dweller, admits he is intelligent and 
maintains that he is not a boob; he can prove it by 
both the minister at the country church whose com- 
pliments buoy him over the hurdles of farm life 
from week to week, and by the editor of the country 
newspaper — the Echo, who comments upon his good 
judgment in picking out 'the garden spot of the 
World' for a home. The integrity of this editor is 
beyond any questioning — 'he prints nothing but 
facts, leaving out all the trash that city papers pub- 
lish to make their editions large, and for our pro- 
tection he even sets up all his own type.' 

"Last Spring while waiting for a train in a little 
town out north of Springfield, I noticed a farmer 



198 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

peeping into a box of 'plate stuff from the Western 
Newspaper Union, sitting upon the express truck, 
and just for sport I asked him what he tjiought it 
could be. He answered : 'Ah I guess it's samples of 
some kind-a new roofin' dope some of them gosh 
durned city slickers has got up to flim-flam us farm- 
ers out-a our money'. 

"Our authorities have been harping upon nitrogen 
fertilizer and protein importance so long that farm- 
ers think nitrogen is the only fertilizer needed, and 
when limestone and phosphates are recommended, 
many of them believe that putting it upon the land 
is like giving a man morphine — 'it must be kept up 
or the land will cease producing altogether'. 

"Upon the 26th of April, 1917, I attended a food- 
conservation meeting in Chicago, and along with 
many eloquently delivered and meaningless ad- 
dresses, Professor Cyril G. Hopkins of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois, read a worth while article — the 
best I ever heard upon soil fertilization, with statis- 
tics of where lands have been made to double and 
often triple their yields by the simple application of 
phosphate rock. Not in a few instances, but conclu- 
sive evidence that practically all lands are deficient 
in this content, but when resolutions were adopted 
at the close of the meeting his statements were not 
mentioned. 

"Devitalized soil, beyond any question will yield 
staminaless and ignorant men, but when you've had 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 199 

a preacher jamming your head full of such nonsense 
as: 'God is in his Heaven and all is well with the 
world', from the cradle to the grave, you have no am- 
bition for troublesome research. Men eat meat, 
white bread and other devitalized foods which our 
food-kings have provided, and which their congress- 
of-gods — learned chemists, have indorsed; they 
drink intoxicating liquor, use tobacco, opium, co- 
caine, etc., because they all have a tendency to pro- 
duce unconsciousness, and the less conscious most 
men are, the more they enjoy themselves. That may 
be one reason they believe they are going to have so 
much fun after they are dead. 

"The psychology of religion is that it is soothing 
and encourages sleep — they even have a song 'Asleep 
in Jesus', while Rationalism awakens and encour- 
ages action and ambition — religion is a good nurse, 
while Rationalism is a desirable school-teacher." 

Uncle Sam turned a page of History, showing: 

ALL SCHOOLS TAKEN OVER BY GOVERN- 
MENT AND PUPILS FED AT GOVERN- 
MENT EXPENSE, WHERE GIRLS ARE 
TAUGHT HOW TO PREPARE NUTRITIOUS 
MEALS INSTEAD OF GARNISHING 
DISHES OF DEVITALIZED TRASH WHICH 
EASILY DECEIVED THE EYES OF OUR 
PARENTS, AND FOSTERED OLD AGE AND 
EARLY DEATH 



200 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 
and then another showing: 

SOFT DRINKS, TEA AND COFFEE, AND 
ALL KINDRED BEVERAGES PLACED IN 
SAME CLASS AS TOBACCO, ALCOHOL 
AND OPIUM AND THUS ABOLISHED 

and another : 

OLD AGE PENSION 
FOR NEEDY AT SIXTY 

This gave Uncle Howard some more material and 
he went on : "When Lloyd George introduced a bill 
into the British Parliament to insure all the work- 
ers in the country by the State, against unemploy- 
ment, with a fund that came directly from higher 
taxation of the land, and known as the National In- 
surance Act, it aroused strong feeling against him, 
but when it proved to stimulate an increase in agri- 
culture, all were well pleased. It has been practiced 
in New Zealand for several years, and inasmuch as 
people no longer fear poverty in old age, they have 
more ambition to work for the common good and 
not yearn for immense wealth. However, there is 
a wealth limit of four hundred thousand dollars in 
New Zealand. 

"Several years ago I visited the Old Folks' Home 
at Oak Forrest, Illinois, and while conversing with 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 201 

one of the old ladies who told me that her husband 
was there also, I asked her if they were allowed to 
be together all the while, and to my surprise she told 
me that they went to chapel together on Sundays, 
and were not permitted together at any other time. 
When she saw that I was displeased with such a sys- 
tem, she insisted that it was a big institution and 
that it would be much more trouble for the authori- 
ties to provide ways for husbands and wives to live 
together; adding that they were both very old and 
hadn't long to live, and that she was praying for God 
to call them both home to Glory at the same time." 
Uncle Sam turned : 

WEALTH LIMIT $500,000 

and again showing: 

REFERENDUM AND RECALL ADOPTED 

and then : 

CHAUTAUQUAS PROVIDED FOR EVERY 
COMMUNITY, WITH EDUCATORS AND 
ENTERTAINERS EMPLOYED AT GOV- 
ERNMENT EXPENSE 

i 
Uncle Howard rattled away: "Before our social 

and economic, physical and mental standards can 



202 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

reach a very high degree, we must know our origin 
and destiny, and this we cannot know without the 
absolution of religion. When the preacher warns 
his hearers, just as the collection baskets start 
around : 'he that giveth sparingly shall reap sparing- 
ly', it serves its purpose and creates fear in the 
minds of those who believe, and to that threat alone 
might be attributed much of the greed and slaughter 
and all sorts of schemes by which men procure 
riches with which they may purchase a high posi- 
tion in the eyes of this God — 'By your deeds shall 
ye be known' — 'As ye soweth the seed, that also shall 
ye reap'. 

"A recommendation from a priest, preacher or 
rabbi will carry a man farther today than from any 
one else, and any man, regardless to his integrity, 
even if he never earned an honest dollar in his life, 
can belong to a church and procure such a recom- 
mendation if he is a cheerful giver, 

"The two attributes which men hold in esteem are 
idleness and wealth. To be poor is shameful and to 
be wealthy is glorious regardless to methods em- 
ployed in achieving it, so it be other than labor ; man 
must demonstrate publicly that he is not needy and 
that toil is unthought of by him. His clothes, canes, 
diamonds and automobiles are symbols which cannot 
be denied him. When wealth ceases to be the stand- 
ard of success custom will cease to be employed as 
proof of wealth." 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 203 
Uncle Sam turned another page : 

LAW ENACTED BY CONGRESS PROVID- 
ING A LIMITLESS FUND FOR THE EN- 
COURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT OF ALL 
INVENTORS AND GENIUSES 

And he went on: "That old tradition of waiting 
until a genius dies before praising his works is the 
most ridiculous thing one can conceive of, but it has 
been the history of the ages to make the progress of 
pioneers as periless as possible. If you want friends 
always shout their echo and above all, compliment 
them upon the brand of religion they have chosen — 
advance a new thought and they will despise you. 
Arthur Brisbane says that this country has more 
inventive genius and less encouragement for invent- 
ors than any other, perhaps — outside of Turkey. 

"If the majority of our Congressmen would de- 
vote less of their speech-making time in declaring 
their patriotism, provide us with a few 'Godless 
days' instead of so many 'National holidays for 
prayer', and offer more encouragement to the genius, 
victory would come much sooner and with less blood- 
shed. How can we expect people to grow more in- 
telligent when prize fighters are lauded and geniuses 
are allowed to starve? No nation could commit a 
greater crime than to strangle the ambition of those 
who wish it well and who are ready to devote their 



204 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

entire lives to its uplift." 

Uncle Sam turned another page showing : 

LAW PROVIDING THAT NEWSPAPERS 
CONVICTED OF PUBLISHING UNTRUTHS 
BE SUPPRESSED 

"But aren't you afraid to criticise the Government 
in that way?" asked Ethel. 

"I am not censoring any one for what they don't 
know, but what I am objecting to is that they don't 
encourage those who do know, and help them to ex- 
pound their discoveries. As for being afraid, you 
must not forget, little girl, that the pope of Rome is 
not the President of the United States, and never 
will be even if he now has seventeen million subjects 
in the country, and if his bishops have declared that 
his intentions are to 'make America Catholic'. 
There's too much free thought and too many uni- 
versities here for that, and there isn't going to be 
any one quartered and drawn or any more St. Bar- 
tholomew massacres either, so don't be afraid. The 
United States Government is a human institution 
and cannot help, making mistakes, and any man who 
sees these mistakes and does not, at least try to call 
attention to them in order that they may be elimi- 
nated and avoided, is not only a coward, but is a trai- 
tor, and as long as President Wilson has the reins in 
his hands you can rest assured that any and all ra- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 205 

tional criticism will be appreciated. If any one 
can show him a mistake he will yield, but there are a 
lot of people who are just too egotistical to acknowl- 
edge a possibility of error." 

Uncle Sam turned, and showed: 

PREVIOUS TO THE WAR BUT FORTY 
PEOPLE OUT OF EVERY ONE HUNDRED 
PERFORMED EITHER PHYSICAL OR 
MENTAL LABOR, AND, WORKING EIGHT 
HOURS PER DAY, THAT FORTY PRO- 
DUCED MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED 
COULD CONSUME. LAW ENACTED PRO- 
VIDING THAT ALL MUST WORK FOUR 
HOURS PER DAY— NO OVERFED AND 
UNDERWORKED — NO OVERWORKED 
AND UNDERFED— NO OVERPRODUCTION 
NO EXPLOITATION— ONE MONTH PER 
YEAR VACATION FOR ALL 

As pleadingly as a sick child begging for candy 
Ethel looked at Uncle Howard, saying: "Mr. Judy, 
Fm not contrary, but honestly, don't you believe in 
any Heaven at all, and don't you believe there is a 
time set for all to die?" 

"My dear child," he answered, "if you believe that 
'your days were numbered' before you were born, 
why do you call a doctor when you get sick? Insane 
asylums are filled with religious fanatics, but I have 



206 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

never heard of a Free-thinker being in one of them ; 
and if you believe that morality is impossible with- 
out religion, look into our penitentiaries, and you 
will find ninety-two who profess religion to every 
eight who do not. Upon every gallows, a clergyman 
or priest pilots the condemned man straight into 
heaven, after an eleventh hour repentance. He may 
be a man who has murdered many men whose moral 
fiber were beyond reproach and who were not given 
the opportunity for this late 'confession' — yes, he 
may be a man whose fingers crushed the throat of 
some helpless and innocent little girl, but the priest 
opens the arms of Jesus who perches him upon 'the 
golden streets of Heaven' where he may forever sit 
in peace, and look down upon his victims who must 
burn through all eternity in the flames of the hell 
that is Kaisered by an evil devil which and whom 
God prepared to 'tempt' and receive Adam before he 
was made. 

"Recently, when asked for his opinion of the im- 
mortality of the soul, Mr. Edison is reported to have 
answered: 'When I die I shall not be playing a 
harp, boiling in oil, or haunting anybody — I shall be 
dead'. He also has said: 'We only know one-mill- 
ionth part of what we should know', and 'emotion- 
ally, we are millions of years old, but intellectually 
we are embryonic'. 

"It is a falsehood for us to maintain that we have 
a Government of the people, for the people, and by 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 207 

the people, when our opinions are corrupted and our 
achievements are directed by a dogmatic program 
that was constructed sixteen hundred years ago. 

"Many of the newspapers, like the Kaiser, 'look 
upon the nation and the people as a responsibility 
conferred upon them', and all who refuse to yield to 
their programs are crushed. Show me the editor of 
such a paper and I will show you a man who is ruled 
by dogmatism. I would like to see every Church in 
the world transformed into a school house tomorrow 
and then see merit exercised in the selection of 
teachers, as this picture contends rules in the army. 

"When the moralic acid of Christianity has been 
neutralized by the logical alkali of Rationalism — the 
theme of Voltare and Bruno, the respectability of 
Washington, Pain and Jefferson, the intelligence of 
Darwin, Huxley and Spencer, and the morality of 
Ingersoll and Lincoln — then and then only will it be 
possible to propagate a race capable of enjoying 
itself; dishonesty, hatred and murder will be re- 
linquished to mutual harmony of all peoples, and 
love of life will reign supreme ; life-long education of 
a thing about which nothing could be known until 
after death, would be to them history most mytho- 
logical — such people would not postpone all of their 
happiness until after their funeral." 

"Why, Lincoln was a very religious man," went on 
Ethel. 

"Yes, and the clergy has it that Ingersoll and 



208 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

Thomas Pain, and for that matter every Atheist the 
world ever knew, died with a prayer on his lips, 
and they are even writing books 'revealing' their 
conversations through the Ouija board with the 
'spirit' of Mark Tain. If that great tragedy upon 
the evening of Good Friday, April 14, 1865 was not 
a Papal plot, why did Dr. Samuel E. Mudd, the Ro- 
man Catholic physician who set Booth's leg, lie to 
the federal officers about Booth and his companion, 
David Harold, having been at his place, and why 
was John Surratt, one of the conspirators, so care- 
fully secreted in Montreal for six months by two 
Canadian priests : Boucher and Leppierre, who final- 
ly smuggled him to Rome, where he became a guard 
at the Vatican ; and if he was partial to the other di- 
vision of the pious gang why did nineteen out of 
twenty-one ministers in Springfield fight him so bit- 
terly during his presidential campaign?" 

Another page of History was upon the screen, and 
read : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 209 

LAW PERMITTING BOOKS UPON MATING 
POULTRY, SWINE, SHEEP, HORSES, CAT- 
TLE, DOGS, CATS, ETC. IN MAILS, 
AMENDED, ALLOWING THE USE OF THE 
MAILS FOR CARRYING INFORMATION 
UPON THE SCIENTIFIC SELECTION OR 
MATING OF MEN AND WOMEN, WHICH, 
IT IS BELIEVED, WILL FOSTER A HIGH- 
ER PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL OFF- 
SPRING AND BRING ABOUT A DISSOLU- 
TION OF DIVORCE COURTS AND AFFIN- 
ITY FLATS, AND PROVIDE A REALM OF 
HUMAN UNDERSTANDING WHERE LOVE 
WILL GOVERN EVERY HOME— EACH 
STRIVING FOR THE WELFARE OF THE 
OTHER. FREEDOM, OF WHICH SO LIT- 
TLE HAS BEEN KNOWN THROUGHOUT 
THE AGES OF THE WORLD WILL THEN 
BE THE PRIVILEGE OF ALL 

"Thirty years ago the horses in this country were 
mere scrubs", he went on, "look at them today, and 
you can blame Science only for the change; look at 
the degenerates and imbeciles of intermarrying roy- 
alists in Europe, and you must lay it to Theology 
and tradition. 

"Billy Sunday says he knows all about Biology — 
how many times a fly flaps his wings in a second, 
how many eyes it has and that a fly can see a church 



210 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

steeple three blocks away; and he also said: 'When 
God made man he made him perfect — he made Adam 
the same as he made me, and if you've seen me you 
have seen Adam\ In his Mother's day sermon, last 
April, he said : 'Any kind of an old stick will do for 
a father'. Isn't that fine advice for a great social 
reformer — 'the leading minister in America' — to 
give young ladies who are ever upon the lookout for 
husbands? If he were asked for his opinion about 
the Mendelian Law, I would not be surprised to have 
him answer that he was not interested in flowers. 

"If our government is going to allow him to con- 
tinue running at large it should make him a present 
of Upton Sinclair's 'Damaged Goods', and perhaps 
he would cease spreading such poisonous nostrums. 
Mental heredity, however, is more significant than 
physical, but it is too far beyond his comprehension 
to offer the least suggestion. 

"The church believes that women who know any- 
thing about anatomy are immoral. Every girl should 
know enough about Biology and Psychology to choose 
a man who is properly mated to her, and then she 
should know enough about Physiology and Anatomy 
to restrict the size of her family, and to bring forth 
a child only when both she and her husband are in 
the best of physical condition. Birth control will 
relinquish quantity to quality, while the church pre- 
fers babies to brains. Read the twelfth chapter of 
Leviticus and you will know why girl babies always 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 211 

come into the world under protest, and you will also 
see that when their brains are no longer filled with 
the haunts of the church, mothers will not be so 
ashamed of motherhood as they are today." 

Several gigantic power plants in rivers and wa- 
ter falls were shown, preceded by a reader: 

ALL WATER-POWER HARNESSED 

"So you think religion is just an invention of Au- 
tocracy for the sole purpose of upholding thrones 
and exploiting laborers, do you?" continued Ethel. 

"Yes, and it has more protection than all the pat- 
ented inventions in the world. Mankind has ever 
yielded to flattery and resisted fact — taken sides 
with his enemies and prevented new liberties being 
born. Do you think that scientific men would have 
given ear to the Kaiser's soothing words: 'With 
God's help the German sword will bring us peace, 
and, indeed, the peace which after much distress and 
many troubles, the German people need for a happy 
future. May our people face the new time and its 
tasks with unbending faith in itself and its mission, 
and with strong, patriotic and proud joy in the 
fatherland bound to me and my house by old and 
proved bonds of mutual trust'. Look what his 
Christianity has brought upon the women of Ger- 
many: 'patriotic to give a child to the fatherland'. 
These people do not shudder at such things, when 



212 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

they know they are to please their All-Highest — His 
Majesty — Divinely Inspired, any more than His 
Grace the Most Reverend Archbishop Mundelein's 
hearers were abhored two years ago last March 
when he told them: 'I am your leader, thinker and 
your director, I will tell you what to do — I need you 
men — I am your Bishop — I think for you\ 

"When the thinking people of this country saw 
the Northern Light upon the seventh of last March, 
they did not think it was a candle in the hands of 
Jesus and a presage from Heaven assuring them that 
God is on the side with the Allies in this war, which 
the newspapers asked them to believe, but doubtless 
it thrilled the hearts of many religious dupes." 

"But what would Mother say, and what would all 
my friends think of me if I should desert the 
church ?" asked Ethel, as she wiped the tears from 
her eyes, and a very complicated arrangement was 
being shown. It was the interior of a great foundry 
and it was so illustrated to convey the idea that 
guns, from the common army rifle to the largest 
naval gun, were being brought in at one side, and 
farm machinery was being taken out on the other. 
After showing considerable detail of the melting- 
furnaces, molding, etc., and as the scene began to 
fade away, a reader appeared over it in very large 
words : 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 213 

WORLD DISARMAMENT 

"Remove the veil from your mother's face and 
teach her to see with her eyes open, convert her — 
convert every Roman Catholic subject you can into 
a free-thinking American citizen — convert every 
God-loving subject of Protestantism into a lover 
of humanity; teach them to idolize their wives 
and husbands, to adore their children and parents, 
to show affection to their sisters and brothers, and to 
love their fellow-men, instead of an unjust god and a 
lying priest. By constant use an organ will develop, 
while those not exercised will vanish — exercise your 
faculty for seeing truth and all myth will disappear. 
Weeds grow best in poorly cultivated or stagnate 
soil, and every convert to Christianity or for any 
other religious faith, is a step in favor of nineteen 
hundred more years of war and persecution, and 
with militaristic governments. 

"When I was first told that all religions were in- 
vented to chloroform intelligence and thus keep men 
in subjection, and that the Christian religion had 
caused more wars than all the other evils in the 
world put together, I was very much angered ; I was 
angry because I was a Christian and I knew that it 
was impossible for me to have believed in a thing 
all my life that was false — I knew it just as well as 
the Belgians knew that Germany was trustworthy 
and that she would always respect her treaty. How- 



214 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

ever, the criticism was too strong to resist investi- 
gation, and when I began looking behind the screen 
their fallacies soon became very transparent, but the 
poor Belgians found their shortcomings in a differ- 
ent way; yet, had they been given warning, they 
would no more have heeded than will the average 
Christian, who enjoys calling his advisers fools, 
until, at least one foot is in the grave, and then the 
very few who ever awaken can only say: 'Oh if I 
could only have seen the truth sooner'." 

The entrance of the Blackman Packing Company 
Was again shown (while the name upon the window 
had been changed to: government supply sta- 
tion) , as Nell, looking to be about fifty years old, a 
young lady and two small children, supposedly her 
daughter and grandchildren, drove up in a modest 
electric car, and just as they were getting out an- 
other car rolled up, in which was a lady about Nell's 
age, and to whom Nell was chatting as her daughter 
and the children entered the building. 

The women were all dressed in men's clothing, at 
which every woman in the theater breathed a sigh, 
but as many women were shown to pass who were 
all thus dressed, the shock soon wore off and com- 
ments could be heard all over the house. 

Soon Carson and Blackman came out together 
(both of whom were considerably older than when 
last shown) , and we immediately saw that the other 
lady was Blackman's wife, 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 215 

"Ah, isn't that the sweetest thing you ever saw in 
your life?" whispered Alice to me, as the young lady 
with her husband and children came out. "Just 
look, each man and his wife have their suits made 
from the same pattern and in the same style. There 
is nothing I admire more than a pair of twins, and 
just think of how much more chummy man and wife 
would look dressed that way, and how the psychology 
of it would bring them nearer and hold them dearer 
to each other — gee, I wish women had enough com- 
mon sense to adopt such a program today, for none 
will dispute that it is bound to come." 

Although her eyes were upon the screen, Ethel 
made no comment upon the style, but continued her 
conversation with Uncle Howard, saying: "Oh, 
mercy, my brain is so confused, give me a little more 
time to think it over — give me until tomorrow." 

"You have all the time in the world — there's no 
threats of fire and brimstone for putting it off, 
there's no revenue for a missionary, no initiation 
fees nor sinking fund, and there's no death warrant 
to sign ; there's no pledging your life to a prelate or 
pontiff, there's no false wings to shelter under and 
there's no evil devils haunting your brain every- 
where you walk. In the Church you are a child of 
fear and a frivolous god is your shepherd — with Ra- 
tionalism you are a full grown person, capable of 
walking without crutches and in the light of justice, 
while truth is your leader. As this production has 



216 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

plainly shown, man has always been his most unre- 
lenting enemy — his moral stupidity has led him to 
reject what he cannot invent, so there's but two 
things that you can do in this case : either break the 
chains that have developed a mind so easily confused 
and become a champion of your own conduct, or re- 
main a sheep under the shepherdship of those who 
have denied you the privilege of thinking. 

"I feel sorry for you, for I know just how you 
feel, and I must tell you that the truth never came 
to me until I was much older than you, but when 
once I did get a peep into it the whole thing soon 
became very clear. I could plainly see why mini- 
sters were always unusually happy while their audi- 
ences were singing that old song: 'Lord, I care not 
for riches, neither silver nor gold, I will make sure 
of Heaven, etc/ and I observed them riding upon the 
backs of those who work, exhibiting a cloak of 
sanctification as their only defense. I looked into 
some of their private lives and found them not su- 
perior to the laymen, and I also observed that the 
boycotting of business men who refused to make 
most liberal donations to the church is as severe as 
those made by graft-collecting politicians. 

"We have sent our boys to die upon the battle 
fields to establish Democracy in Europe, and not 
only have we permitted Autocracy to run rampant 
here at home while they are doing it, but we have 
rendered it the greatest assistance possible by ex- 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 217 

empting its mightiest weapons from military serv- 
ice so they may be strong and ready to chloroform 
those who return ; but I sincerely hope they will re- 
fuse it and demand what they have earned instead 
of leaving it to posterity. If they do demand it they 
will easily get it. May millions of voices shout: 
'Down with Autocracy and its Kingdoms and slav- 
ery, and up with humanity and freedom and real 
Democracy' !" 

The happy Carson family were shown to be just 
finishing their evening meal, in a modest but not 
luxurious home, and as they arose from the table 
Carson and the children walked into the adjoining 
room, while the daughter proceeded to wash the 
dishes and her husband prepared to wipe them, after 
which Carson was shown reclining in an easy chair 
and looking, as if in deep study, at a picture of Presi- 
dent Wilson hanging upon the wall — the children 
playing upon the floor. 

Presently Nell came in and as she sat down upon 
the left arm of his chair with her arm upon his 
shoulder, the following verse appeared, word at a 
time, over the scene, and while the audience re- 
mained quiet: 



218 THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 

As I think o'er the struggles of by-gone days, 

When the world was full of hatred and shame, 
Which ruled all through the dark ages — 

Until Democracy came : 
Of how our brothers and sisters would jeer us 

When we'd warn them of Autocracy's greed, 
Then to see them now — free and happy, 

It seems so unreal — indeed. 

The verse disappeared and another came in the 
same way, while they fondled each other, and Ethel 
heaved a deep sigh: 

It was you dear that guided my footsteps 

O'er HIS hurdles of filth and thorns, 
'Twas your love that turned joys from sorrows — 

That patient little mind void of scorns. 
We taught them compassion and sympathy, 

With the aid of Uncle Sam, 
And they'll praise us till the Earth again grows cold — ■ 

Dear — they couldn't understand. 

"Well, this picture and your conversation has 
changed my whole ambition in life, and I am going 
to be a different man from now on," whispered 
Owen, as the last words appeared and the scene 
faded out with the happy couple in fond embrace. 

"Yes, and I am going to be a different woman," 
answered Ethel as quick as a flash, "the pealing of 
the cathedral chimes will fall upon deaf ears, and 
shall no longer fill my brain with fear of Hell and 
Purgatory," while Uncle Sam displayed the last page 
of his History: 



THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY 219 

LIFE MADE WORTH LIVING 
FOR ALL MANKIND 

"I am going to join some philosophical society, 
and the hours and days that I have heretofore wast- 
ed in counting beads and mumbling prayers," she 
went on, "will hereafter be spent there and in libra- 
ries, and in contributing some real good to the world ; 
I am done with the Church and its stagnation for- 
ever — done with its dogmatism and its lies !" 

"Good for you, little girl," shouted Uncle Howard, 
jumping to his feet and grabbing her by the hand, 
as the curtains were drawn, concealing Uncle Sam, 
who was standing on top of the World with his His- 
tory under his arm, and while part of the audience 
sat spellbound and others cheered, "I have changed 
my mind too — if your eyes can be opened surely oth- 
ers can be made to see, so I am going back to Dan- 
ville and write a book on Holding Back the Twen- 
tieth Century." 

FINIS. 



